________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-701. Thu 17 Sep 1992. Lines: 154 Subject: 3.701 Reanalyses Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 10:23:11 -0700 From: wilcox@triton.unm.edu Subject: Re: 3.697 Reanalyses 2) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 15:32:28 EDT From: Ian MacKay Subject: reanalysis 3) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 12:57:05 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: RE: 3.697 Reanalyses 4) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 12:47:36 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: RE: 3.697 Reanalyses 5) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 20:52:46 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Reanalyses -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 10:23:11 -0700 From: wilcox@triton.unm.edu Subject: Re: 3.697 Reanalyses Two reanalyses, one from English (and my youth), one from ASL (a young deaf girl): When I was young and learning the alphabet by singing the alphabet song, I used to think there were two kinds of Bs in the alphabet: a regular B ("A _B_ C D E F G ...") and a special, "elemental B" ("H I J K elemental B"). Go figure... The ASL reanalysis is difficult to describe (and I'm just awful at describing how to form ASL words). Here goes. The ASL word BE-CAREFUL is related to the word KEEP, certainly phonologically (two V or K hands) if not also semantically. The ASL word LOOK is made with a V handshape. A deaf girl that I know, quite intelligent little 6 year old, fluent in ASL and (written/signed) English, one day noticed the written words "Be careful" and saw her father sign in ASL BE-CAREFUL in translation. She expressed surprise that the ASL BE-CAREFUL was "be careful" in English. She said she always thought it meant something like "keep your eyes/gaze on it" (that is, she reanalyzed BE-CAREFUL to KEEP-EYES). Not a bad reanalysis since for a deaf person, to be careful often *is* to be on the (visual) alert. -------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 15:32:28 EDT From: Ian MacKay Subject: reanalysis Just where does one draw the line between reanalyses and slips of the ear? Even if the slip of the ear occurs only one time, it is a reanalysis, since perception is an active, analytical process. In any event, an example from the classified ads: someone was selling an object described in the ad as "a 4 stair furnace". Ian MacKay (imackay@acadvm1.uottawa.ca) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 12:57:05 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: RE: 3.697 Reanalyses Re George Fowler's child's "asposed," I come from Dayton Ohio and I remember distinctly a Tennesseean or Kentuckian adult pronunciation of "asposed" and "susposed" as in: You're not asposed tah do thet OR You're not susposed tah do thet. How that figures into Indiana child acquisition of subdialects, well maybe it is an emerging isogloss (??) ====================================================================== Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off: Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874 Speech Communication Department hm: California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872 SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663 Northridge, CA 91330 Internet: AHARRIS@VAX.CSUN.EDU ====================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 12:47:36 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: RE: 3.697 Reanalyses <"Jack Smith in the LA Times occasionally refers to "mishpas," a reanalysis based on a spelling metathesis (or a typo) that one of his fans performed in a letter (=mishaps). And "posslq" has been reanalyzed to fit gay and lesbian as well as heterosexual concerns. While I am on the subject of analysis and reanalysis, about two blocks away from me is an auto repair shop that proudly displays a very large sign above the bldg: Come in and get your engine analized (!!). Lastly, English pron. of 'sheik' is [shi:k] (rhymes with "sleek"); the Arabic is [sheyx]. best to all, Alan ====================================================================== Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off: Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874 Speech Communication Department hm: California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872 SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663 Northridge, CA 91330 Internet: AHARRIS@VAX.CSUN.EDU ====================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 20:52:46 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Reanalyses Someone (I am very sorry I can't recall the name) suggested just recently that people who write 'imput' are thereby showing that they are not aware that this word has something to do with 'IN' (and is the opposite of 'OUTput). This is a nonsequitur, since it is perfectly possible (and indeed I would argue is actually the case, but that is another matter) that the natural way to spell things is in terms of a level of phonological representation close to what has sometimes been called 'taxonomic phonemics', or, in the more precise terminology I introduced in 1981, 'Leningrad phonemics' (or perhaps at a level even somewhat shallower than that). In other words, it would not matter what the morphological analysis of the word is, it would only matter how it is actually pronounced. Presumably, speakers of Dutch have no trouble connecting the form HUIS 'house' with its plural 'HUIZEN', even though the former indicates in its spelling the final devoicing of the /z/. The same would be true with the English example under discussion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-701. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-702. Thu 17 Sep 1992. Lines: 38 Subject: 3.702 Job: Syntax at U-Mass Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 17:17 EST From: BARBARA PARTEE Subject: JOB -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 17:17 EST From: BARBARA PARTEE Subject: JOB SYNTAX POSITION AT UMASS/AMHERST The Department of Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has a tenured or tenure-track position (Assistant/Associate/Full Professor) to begin September 1, 1993, for a specialist in theoretical linguistics with concentration in syntax. Interest in interface(s) of syntax with other areas of linguistics is an asset. Rank is open, salary commensurate with experience. Send letter of application, curriculum vitae, sample publications, and three letters of reference to: Syntax Search Committee, Department of Linguistics, South College, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 0l003. Deadline for receipt of applications: December 1, 1992. The University of Massachusetts is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Members of underrepresented populations are encouraged to apply. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-702. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-703. Fri 18 Sep 1992. Lines: 262 Subject: 3.703 Reanalyses Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 10:08:52 EST From: mark Subject: Re 3.701 Reanalyses 2) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:20:13 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: reanalysis 3) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 08:12 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Reanalyses 4) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:18:36 EDT From: Ian MacKay Subject: reanalyses 5) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 06:54:22 HST From: David Stampe Subject: 3.701 Reanalyses 6) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 16:10:32 PDT From: brugman@crl.ucsd.edu (Claudia Brugman) Subject: Re: 3.701 Reanalyses 7) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 08:35:55 CDT From: Michael Kac Subject: Re: 3.677 Reanalyses 8) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 14:28:30 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: 3.701 Reanalyses 9) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:20 EDT From: "Sue.Gass" <21003SMG@msu.edu> Subject: Reanalysis -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 10:08:52 EST From: mark Subject: Re 3.701 Reanalyses In 3.701 Alexis Manaster Ramer argues that is (or might well be) the "natural" spelling of "input" by someone who has heard the word without seeing it written, regardless of whether they understand its morphology. In support of this argument he introduces the analogy: > Presumably, speakers of Dutch have no trouble connecting > the form HUIS 'house' with its plural 'HUIZEN', even > though the former indicates in its spelling the final > devoicing of the /z/. The same would be true with the > English example under discussion. But Dutch is loaded with cases of voiced medial fricatives (before a suffix such as -EN) corresponding to voiceless final ones, reflected in the very regular, surface-based spelling. Dutch speaker/readers have plenty of examples to learn it from at an early age. How frequent in English are transparent cases of m / _[labial] : n / elsewhere ? Not very. (Latin /in/ prefixes for 'not', 'in', and '[intensive]' are not natively transparent to English-speakers, as witness the teaching of their underlying unity in textbooks of Latin, linguistics, and high-school English.) English spelling, unlike that of Dutch, tends to preserve morphology, even obscure and non-productive morphology, rather than reflect surface phonology (contributing to its notorious difficulty). And therefore a case of a heard word being spelled in accordance with pronunciation rather than morphology, especially when the morphology is recent and productive and based on common morphemes, is evidence that the writer was unaware of the morphology. Mark A. Mandel Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:20:13 CST From: (Dennis Baron) Subject: reanalysis I thought all children said asposed for supposed. All the children I have known do/did. And pisghetti for spaghetti (except for my two younger children, products of the yuppie life, who invariably call it "pasta"). Here's another one: last night I was reading "The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners" to my 3 year old son. In the text, Papa Bear calls a driver he has just bunked [sic; another kid term] into a pinhead or some such. Sister Bear says, "That's name calling, Papa." When the two driver bears get out of their cars for a confrontation, my son asked, "What does Name Calling say to Papa Bear?" The misreading of _misled_ as `mizzled' rather than mis-led is a classic; I've heard so many people tell me they've read mizzled instead of misled that now I do it too, every time I see the word in print. One of the standard folk etymologies for Gringo supposes it to be a reanalysis of the beginning of the song, "Green grow the lilacs, oh," which is supposed to be what Spanish speakers heard English soldiers singing. Maybe it's even true. There are certainly borrowings that fit the mold: the French for transom is _le vasistas_, apparently the question Germans in Alsace and Lorraine asked for the window over the door, and the French thought they were kindly naming it for them. The peasant hair style called _quichenot_ in Poitou is supposed to come from French women resisting the advances of English invaders of La Rochelle by saying a heavily accented Poitevin version of "kiss not." And more: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear. Blessed art thou, a monk swimming. Ramona Quimby, another hero of children's lit, says the phrase from the Star Spangled Banner as "Dawnzerly Light." Someone in the word-game business must have collected these sorts of things in abundance. Dennis Baron debaron@uiuc.edu Dept. of English office: 217-333-2392 University of Illinois 217-333-9568 608 S. Wright St fax: 217-333-4321 Urbana IL 61801 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 08:12 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Reanalyses I've run into a number of reanalyses in northwest Ohio, especially the Toledo area, although these may well be more widespread: "viadock" for "viaduct" "to frosten" ([t] pronounced) for "to frost" "incidence" for "incident" and idiomatically "to look one's nose down at" for "to look down one's nose at" but I'm not sure that the last three are reanalyses of the sort this list has been discussing. Herb Stahlke Ball State University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:18:36 EDT From: Ian MacKay Subject: reanalyses A notorious example of reanalysis that involves orthographic influence is the term "chaise lounge". Presumably, the descriptive French expression "chaise longue" (literally, 'long chair') was reanalysed, due to orthographic similarity, familiarity, and semantic reasons, to "chaise lounge". n Ian MacKay (imackay@acadvm1.uottawa.ca) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 06:54:22 HST From: David Stampe Subject: 3.701 Reanalyses In a brief clip I saw recently on tv, some little girls were playing Ring around the Rosie, singing Aa shit, Aa shit, We all fall down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 16:10:32 PDT From: brugman@crl.ucsd.edu (Claudia Brugman) Subject: Re: 3.701 Reanalyses Dare I post this? It's not meant to be sacrilegious. When I was a kid I thought "holy infant, so tender and mild" in _Silent night_ was "holy imbecile, tender and mild". I just assumed that "imbecile" had undergone pejoration since the composition of the hymn--folk-etymologized it as something like `innocent' (one of the properties of Jesus that I'd learned about at some length was that he was innocent, though not naive.). This doesn't hold a candle to "elemental B", though. Claudia Brugman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 08:35:55 CDT From: Michael Kac Subject: Re: 3.677 Reanalyses Susan Fischer mentions the possibility of print-based misanalyses. One which crops up occsionally is the pronunciation of *misled* as [mayzld] or [mIzld]. I've also heard *carousel* read as [kerawzl] (read the *e* as a schwa). John D. Macdonald's Travis Mcgee series includes a novel called *The Green Ripper*, evidently after a child's attempt at *The Grim Reaper* -- but I don't know if the error is authentic. Complementary to *duck tape* one sometimes hears *try a different tact*; I've also heard *tenure tract*. That leads me to a question about something one hears from sports commentators: sometimes you'll hear a team described as having trouble getting untracked. I've always wondered whether that's based on a misanalysis of *getting on track* but I don't know. An acquaintance who teaches freshman composition reports having read a student paper in which the author, bemoaning the highly competitive tenor of contempo- rary life, comments that it's a doggy dog world out there. Michael Kac -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 14:28:30 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: 3.701 Reanalyses A B Sea Prayer (provoked by a previous listing) Ah, be sea! To ye effigy! Each eye shake! Elemental Peak! You roar esse! To you we double! You wax wide, sea! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:20 EDT From: "Sue.Gass" <21003SMG@msu.edu> Subject: Reanalysis I can't resist putting in my own example of reanalysis. When I was a child I must have heard people ask me the question "Do you have to urinate?" since for a while I frequently said "I have to my inate". Sue Gass -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-703. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-704. Fri 18 Sep 1992. Lines: 74 Subject: 3.704 Summary: Syntax Course Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 18 Sep 1992 15:42:33 GMT-1200 From: lingsup@antnov1.aukuni.ac.nz Subject: summary of responses: 2nd year syntax 3145) -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 18 Sep 1992 15:42:33 GMT-1200 From: lingsup@antnov1.aukuni.ac.nz Subject: summary of responses: 2nd year syntax first of all, thanks to everyone who responded to our query. the results are 2 votes for brown & miller's syntax. the first edition was described as "quite obsolete, somewhat parochial, and notationally garbled", but with the advantages of including morphology, grammatically relevant semantics, and data from exotic languages. it's now in it's second edition, which may or may not be improved. 2 votes for noel burton-roberts' analyzing sentences (longman) 1 vote for h.jackson's discovering grammar (pergamon press) 1 vote for robert borsley's syntactic theory: a unified approach (edward arnold australia, 80 waverly rd, caulfield east, victoria 3145) 1 vote for shopen's 2 volume set - languages and their speakers; and languages and their statuses, plus readings from comrie's language universals and linguistic typology and some readings from shopen's 3 volume set - syntactic theory and grammatical description (note: here we use comrie and the shopen 3 volume for our third year, advanced syntax. second year students have found both to be "too hard to understand") 1 vote for a not yet published theory neutral syntax text currently being written by marilyn silva (not on email) at the dept. of human development, cal state hayward, hayward ca 94544 there were also some strictly english grammar suggestions (not really appropriate to the kind of course we do here, which is very much oriented towards non-english data, but might be just what someone else out there is looking for). 1 vote for jeff kaplan's english grammar: facts & principles (prentice hall) 1 vote for klammer & schulz' analyzing english grammar (allyn & bacon) 1 vote for mccawley's 2 volume syntactic phenomena of english (chicago) 1 vote for george curme's 1947 english grammar (barnes & noble) again, thanks to everyone who responded. we haven't actually checked out any of the suggestions yet, so can't offer any additional evaluation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-704. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-705. Fri 18 Sep 1992. Lines: 355 Subject: 3.705 NELS 23 Program Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 14:56:20 EDT From: Marc Authier & Lisa Reed Subject: Revised NELS 23 program -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 14:56:20 EDT From: Marc Authier & Lisa Reed Subject: Revised NELS 23 program Below please find the revised version of the NELS 23 program, as well as a pre-registration packet which includes the form needed to register. A number of changes have been made, e.g., we have included the names of individuals who have kindly accepted to chair sessions, also, there are more details regading the NELS 23 party. We hope that you will decide to join us in October! Yours sincerely, Marc Authier & Lisa Reed e-mail: NELS23@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA FAX: (613) 564-9067 PROGRAMME NELS 23 PROGRAM UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA-UNIVERSITE D'OTTAWA The conference will take place in Montpetit Hall 202 Le congres se tiendra au 202, Pavillon Montpetit (125 University St./125, rue Universite) Friday, October 16, 1992/Vendredi, le 16 octobre 1992 9:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast/ Inscriptions et petit dejeuner continental 9:45 Opening Remarks/Mot d'acceuil: Chad Gaffield, Vice-Dean/Vice Doyen Graduate School/Etudes superieures SEANCE/SESSION I PRESIDENT/PRESIDING: THOMAS ERNST, University of Delaware 10:00 M.A. BROWNING, Princeton University Emphatic and Adverbial Reflexives 10:30 KASANGATI K.W. KINYALOLO, UQAM The Logophoric Pronoun 'emi' as an LF Operator/Anaphor 11:00 TOHRU NOGUCHI, UMass Amherst Pronominal Binding and Syntactic Categories 11:30 Coffee Break/Pause cafe SEANCE/SESSION II PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: LJILJANA PROGOVAC, Wayne State University 12:00 YOUNG-SUK LEE, University of Pennsylvania Two Classes of Negative Polarity Items in Korean 12:30 CHRIS BARKER & DAVID DOWTY, The Ohio State University Non-Verbal Thematic Proto-Roles 13:00 Lunch Break/Dejeuner SEANCE/SESSION III PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: ANN LAUBSTEIN, Carleton University 14:30 JULIE SEDIVY & MICHAEL SPIVEY-KNOWLTON, University of Rochester The Effect of NP Definiteness on Parsing Attachment Ambiguities 15:00 AARON HALPERN, Stanford, GAIL MAUNER, U. of Rochester, & MICHAEL K. TANENHAUS, U. of Rochester Priming of Structural and Conceptual Verb Phrase Anaphors 15:30 MALCOM FINNEY & HELEN GOODLUCK, University of Ottawa When are Chains Constructed? 16:00 Coffee Break/Pause cafe SEANCE/SESSION IV PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: CAROLE PARADIS, Universite Laval 16:30 JANET PIERREHUMBERT, Northwestern University Dissimilarity in Arabic Verbal Roots 17:00 PATRICIA A. SHAW, University of British Columbia Templatic Evidence for the Syllable Nucleus 17:30 BEN HERMANS, Tilburg University Reconsidering Moras 18:00 Dinner/Souper SEANCE/SESSION V PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: KAREN ZAGONA, University of Washington 19:30 DAVID PESETSKY, MIT Cascade Syntax and Layered Syntax 20:00 ANDREAS KATHOL & ROBERT D. LEVINE, Ohio State University Inversion as a Linearization Effect 20:30 JOHN MOORE, UC San Diego Head Government and Minimality 21:00 MARK R. BALTIN, New York University How to Get A Head Saturday, October 17, 1992/Samedi, le 17 octobre 1992 8:30 Registration & Continental Breakfast/ Inscriptions et petit dejeuner continental SEANCE/SESSION I PRESIDENT/PRESIDING: HELES CONTRERAS, University of Washington 9:00 KNUT TARALD TARALDSEN, Universitetet i Tromso Subject/Verb-Agreement and Word Order in Celtic and Romance 9:30 JOSE CAMACHO & LILIANA SANCHEZ, USC Equative "ser" ('to be') in Spanish 10:00 PASCUAL J. MASULLO, U. of Washington/Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina Two Types of Quirky Subjects: Spanish versus Icelandic 10:30 Coffee Break/Pause cafe SEANCE/SESSION II PRESIDENT/PRESIDING: AD NEELEMAN, University of Utrecht 11:00 NORBERT HORNSTEIN & SPYRIDOULA VARLOKOSTA, U. of Maryland Control in Modern Greek 11:30 GILLIAN CATRIONA RAMCHAND, Stanford University Aspect Phrase in Modern Scottish Gaelic 12:00 NIGEL DUFFIELD, Heinrich-Heine Universitat Dusseldorf Irish Construct State Nominals and the Radical Pro-Drop Phenomenon 12:30 Lunch Break/Dejeuner SEANCE/SESSION III PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: SABINE IATRIDOU, University of Pennsylvania 14:00 PAUL PORTNER, Artificial Intelligence Lab (MCC, Austin Texas) The Semantics of Complementizers 14:30 CHRISTOPHER J. PINON, Stanford University Nominal Reference and the Imperfective in Polish and English 15:00 TIM STOWELL, UCLA Past Polarity 15:30 Coffee Break & Business Meeting: Selection of host for NELS 25 (Please note that NELS 24 will take place at UMass, Amherst)/ Pause cafe et reunion de gestion: selection de l'universite a laquelle se tiendra NELS 25 (notez que NELS 24 aura lieu a UMass Amherst) SEANCE/SESSION IV PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: ARHONTO TERZI, University of Ottawa 16:00 KEN SAFIR, Rutgers University What's in a Complement? 16:30 AKIRA WATANABE, MIT Larsonian CP Recursion, Factive Predicates, and Selection 17:00 ERIC HOEKSTRA, P.J. Meertens Institute, The Netherlands On the Parametrization of Functional Projections in CP 17:30 PETER CULICOVER, Ohio State University Evidence Against ECP Accounts of the that-t Effect 20:00 NELS 23 PARTY/SOIREE DANSANTE NELS 23--Blue Room/Salon bleu (Marchand Dorms/Residence Marchand, 110 rue University St.) Live Music by "El Feddan" (rock/jazz fusion) starts at 9:00 pm Orchestre "El Feddan" (rock/jazz) a 21h Sunday, October 18, 1992/Dimanche, le 18 octobre 1992 8:30 Registration/Inscriptions SEANCE/SESSION I PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: ANNE ROCHETTE, Universite du Quebec a Montreal 9:00 MARK BAKER, McGill University Why Unaccusative Verbs Can't Dative-Shift 9:30 MARIA-LUISA RIVERO, University of Ottawa On Vo-Raising and Xo-Hopping 10:00 CHRISTOPHER MILLER, UQAM Parallel Morphology in Simultaneous Constructions in Quebec Sign Language/LSQ 10:30 Coffee Break/Pause cafe SEANCE/SESSION II PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: ELIZABETH HUME, Ohio State University 11:00 MARK D. ARNOLD, University of Maryland Agreement in American Sign Language: Syntax or Phonology? 11:30 THOMAS B. KLEIN, University of Delaware On the Status of Structure Preservation in German 12:00 Lunch Break/Dejeuner SEANCE/SESSION III PRESIDENTE/PRESIDING: LISA TRAVIS, McGill University 13:00 SHALOM LAPPIN, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Ellipsis Resolution at S-Structure 13:30 FRIEDERIKE MOLTMANN, MIT On the Identification of Empty Elements in Comparatives 14:00 FILIPPO BEGHELLI, UCLA Quantifier Scope, Crossover, and Minimality 14:30 JUN ABE, University of Connecticut Expletive Replacement and Quantifier Scope 15:00 End of Conference/Fin du congres ALTERNATE PAPERS/COMMUNICATIONS EN RESERVE Phonology/Phonologie: KRISTIN HANSON, University of British Columbia Resolution: Evidence from English Metrics Psycholinguistics/Psycholinguistique: ENRIQUETA CANSECO-GONZALES, Brandeis U., EDWARD GIBSON, MIT/CMU, GREG HICKOK, MIT, & NEAL PEARLMUTTER, MIT Cross-Linguistic Attachment Preferences: Evidence from English and Spanish Semantics/Semantique: GREG CARLSON & BEVERLY SPEJEWSKI, University of Rochester Modification of Event Relations Syntax/Syntaxe: JEONG-SHIK LEE, UConn & JOAN MALING, Brandeis U. Case, Locality, and NP-Movement PETER ACKEMA, AD NEELEMAN, & FRED WEERMAN, University of Utrecht Deriving Functional Projections NELS 23 OCTOBER 16-18, 1992 UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA PRE-REGISTRATION PACKET To avoid potentially longer lines at the table for new registrants, you may pre-register for NELS 23 by sending the Registration Form below to the address indicated. Please allow at least 10 days for mail delivery to Ottawa. 1. HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS The NELS 23 Organizing Committee has signed a contract with the Holiday Inn located at the Ottawa Market Square (350 Dalhousie St.) at a special flat rate of $69.00 (Canadian) per night, plus tax (maximum occupancy: 4 persons) for the evening preceding the conference (October 15), as well as the duration of the meeting itself (October 16-18). This hotel is conveniently located within walking distance to the University of Ottawa and it is also very close to restaurants and shops. The number of rooms reserved is limited and the final cut-off for reservations is September 25, 1992. To make your reservation please call Holiday Inn at (613) 236- 0201, mentioning the NELS 23 convention code. There are two ways to get from the airport to the Holiday Inn. First, you can take a taxi. (Call Blue Line Taxi Co. at (613) 238-1111 or A-1 Taxi at (613) 746-1616.) Fares are about $25.00 and the trip takes approximately 20 minutes. Alternatively, you may take the Airport Shuttle which runs every half hour from the airport and costs $9.00 per person. Unfortunately, the shuttle does not stop at the Holiday Inn, but rather, two and a half blocks directly south of it. You get off at the stop for Les Suites Hotel and walk straight down Dalhousie Street. To walk from the Holiday Inn to the conference hall on 125 University street takes about 10 minutes. Exit the hotel on Dalhousie Street, turn right on Dalhousie and walk down it until you reach Rideau Street (one block). Make a left on Rideau Street and walk down it until you reach Cumberland Street (two blocks). Make a right on Cumberland and walk straight down it into the University of Ottawa until you reach University street (5 blocks). Make a right onto University, which wraps around the Morisset Library and the Uni-Centre, eventually reaching Montpetit Hall, which is 125 University. The conference hall is called the De Celles Amphitheatre and the room number is 202. 2. PARKING ON CAMPUS Parking is free on the University of Ottawa campus on weekends. The parking lots closest to the conference hall are N and X located at the intersection of University Street and Jean-Jacques Lussier Street. Please note, however, that on Thursday and Friday you will have to get a permit at Traffic Services located on 100 Thomas More and you will have to use the underground lot next to Traffic Services. Permits cost $9.00 per day. For additional info call the Traffic Office at (613) 564-3954. 3. COPYING/FAX SERVICES There are two copy centers located on Rideau Street, which you will be walking by on your way to campus from the Holiday Inn. These are Rapid Copy and Zippy Print. The best quality one is Zippy Print located at 227 Rideau Street. Its telephone number is (613) 236-0340 and its FAX number is (613) 230-1433. Unfortunately, the commercial services are generally closed on the weekend. Alternatively, you can use the xeroxing services available on the main floor of the campus library located in Morisset Hall at 65 University Street. The campus facility is open on the weekend, but to use it, you will have to buy a campus copy card. (Ask at the check-out desk of the library.) 4. PUBLISHER'S EXHIBITS Publishers will be displaying across from the conference hall in room 207 5. NELS 23 PARTY The NELS 23 party will take place on Saturday October 17 at 8:00 pm in the Blue Room located at 110 University Street. Doors open at 8:00 pm and the band starts at 9:00 pm. Cash bar. 6.NELS 23 T-Shirts The Linguistic Undergraduate Students Association (ADELSA) will be selling the official NELS t-shirts during the conference. PRE-REGISTRATION FORM Please return to: Lisa Reed, coordinator NELS 23 University of Ottawa Department of Linguistics 78 Laurier Ave., East Ottawa, Ontario CANADA K1N 6N5 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEES: This form, accompanied by a check drawn in US dollars on a US bank or in Canadian dollars on a Canadian bank, must be received by the opening of the conference on Friday, October 16th. We regret that we are unable to refund fees to registrants who cannot attend. The conference fee includes entrance to all sessions, a registration packet, coffee breaks, and admission to the NELS 23 party. Please check the appropriate space: STUDENT _______ $25 REGULAR _______ $40 MAILING ADDRESS (Sept.1-Oct.15, 1992) Last Name: ____________________________ First Name: ___________________ Affiliation: (if part of mailing address) _______________________________ Department: (if part of mailing address) ________________________________ Street: ________________________________________________________________ City: _________________ Province/State: ______________________________ Postal Code/Zip:_________________ Country: __________________________ Tel. ___________________ E-mail: ___________________________________ Thank you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-705. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-706. Fri 18 Sep 1992. Lines: 77 Subject: 3.706 Conferences: BU Conference on Language Development Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 10:19:26 -0400 Subject: BU Conference reminder From: langconf@louis-xiv.bu.edu (BU Conference on Language Development) -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 10:19:26 -0400 Subject: BU Conference reminder From: langconf@louis-xiv.bu.edu (BU Conference on Language Development) ============================================================================ REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER The preregistration deadline for the BU Conference on Language Development is October 9, 1992 (see below for how to obtain more information) ============================================================================ 17th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development October 23, 24 and 25, 1992 KEYNOTE SPEAKER: George Miller, Princeton University "Looking through the Lexicon" PLENARY SPEAKERS: Jean Aitchison, London School of Economics "Shuddering Halt or Sudden Spurt? The Linguistic Development of Pre-Adolescents" Ken Hale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "On Resisting Language Loss: The Human Value of Local Languages" Sessions include first and second language acquisition of syntax, morphology, phonology, lexical and conceptual knowledge, discourse, narrative and literacy, social and cultural aspects of language use, as well as exceptional language, language processing, and bilingualism. ****************************************************************************** For more information: A preliminary program, pre-registration form, and information about hotels, discounts on domestic air fares, and child care arrangements, are available via e-mail. If you send a message to info@louis-xiv.bu.edu you will receive an automated reply that contains these materials. Early in August, these materials were sent by regular mail to those who are on our mailing list. (Speakers are urged to wait to pre- register until they receive that mailing.) Anyone who plans to attend the conference is advised to make hotel arrangements as soon as possible. If you have any questions, or if you would like to add your address to our regular mailing list or inform us of a change in address, please send e-mail to langconf@louis-xiv.bu.edu, phone 617-353-3085, fax 617-353-6218, or write to: Boston University Conference on Language Development 138 Mountfort Street Boston, MA 02215 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-706. ________________________________________________________________ Received: from TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU by tamsun.tamu.edu with SMTP id AA05526 (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for linguist); Fri, 18 Sep 92 21:09:11 -0500 Received: from TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU by tamvm1.tamu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0491; Fri, 18 Sep 92 21:08:06 CDT Received: from TAMVM1.BITNET by TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 6035; Fri, 18 Sep 92 21:08:05 CDT Received: from UBVMS.BITNET (LINDRYER) by TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 6033; Fri, 18 Sep 92 21:06:29 CDT Received: from ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu by ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu (PMDF #2452 ) id <01GOY1VIM3WG8WX3Q5@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>; Fri, 18 Sep 1992 22:10:43 EDT Date: 18 Sep 1992 22:10:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Matthew Dryer Subject: ESCOL Program To: Linguist@tamvm1.BITNET Message-Id: <01GOY1VIM3WI8WX3Q5@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu> Organization: University at Buffalo X-Envelope-To: Linguist@tamvm1.BITNET X-Vms-To: IN%"Linguist@tamvm1" X-Vms-Cc: LINDRYER Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Status: RO NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE EASTERN STATES CONFERENCE ON LINGUISTICS ESCOL 92 State University of New York at Buffalo (Amherst Campus) Preliminary Program FRIDAY, Nov. 13 9:00 John Myhill , Univ. of Michigan. "Discourse, Semantic, and Syntactic Factors Affecting Object Fronting in Biblical Hebrew" 9:30 Byong-seon Yang, SUNY Buffalo. "Clause and information structure of Korean relative clauses in Role and Reference Grammar" 10:00 Nancy Hedberg, Simon Fraser Univ. "Referential Expletives and the Extraposition Analysis of Clefts" 10:30 Break 10:45 Darrell Williams, Univ. of Alberta. "English Comparative Compounds with OVER, UNDER, and OUT" 11:15 Paul D. Deane, Univ. of Central Florida. "Multimodal Semantic Representation: On the Semantic Unity of OVER and Other Polysemous Prepositions" 11:45 Sally A. Rice, Univ. of Alberta. "Far Afield in Lexical Fields: The English Prepositions" 12:15 Lunch Break 2:00 INVITED SPEAKER: WILLIAM CROFT, Univ. of Michigan. "Markedness and Linguistic Theory" 3:00 Break PARALLEL SESSION A, 3:15-5:15: 3:15 M. Lynne Murphy, Univ. of Illinois. "Relative Adjectives as Directions: A New Look at Scales" 3:45 Hana Filip, Univ. of California at Berkeley. "Quantification in Linguistic and Conceptual Representation" 4:15 Marc Light, Univ. of Rochester. "Rehashing Re-" 4:45 Christopher J. Pinon, Stanford Univ. "Derived Imperfectivity in Hungarian" PARALLEL SESSION B, 3:15-5:15: 3:15 Cheng Luo, Brock University. "The Accessibility Hierarchy and Clefting" 3:45 Spike Gildea, Univ. of Oregon. "On the Evolution of A Counter-Universal Pattern of Split Ergativity" 4:15 Dan Devitt, SUNY Buffalo. "Which Way Did They Go?: The Question of Directionality in the Grammaticization of Copulas and Auxiliaries" 4:45 Jila Ghomeshi & Diane Massam, Univ. of Toronto. "The Syntactic Aspect of Objects" 5:15 Reception 8:00 INVITED SPEAKER: ANTHONY WOODBURY, Univ. of Texas. "Are morphology and syntax different?" 9:00 INVITED SPEAKER: RUSSELL TOMLIN, Univ. of Oregon. "The role of attention in mapping event representations to linguistic representations" SATURDAY, Nov. 14 PARALLEL SESSION A, 9:00-11:00 9:00 Naoya Fujita, Univ. of Rochester. "Floating Quantifiers as Operators-in-Situ" 9:30 Edward J. Rubin, Cornell Univ. "The Category of Modifiers" 10:00 Arild Hestvik, Univ. of Stuttgart. "The Effect of Subordination on Strict Identify Interpretation of Reflexives" 10:30 Steven G. Lapointe, Univ. of California at Davis, "A Dual Category Approach to Gerund Phrases" PARALLEL SESSION B, 9:00-11:00 9:00 Beth A. Hockey, Univ. of Pennsylvania. "Prosody and the Role of 'Okay' and 'Uh-huh' in Discourse" 9:30 Matthew S. Dryer, SUNY Buffalo. "Pragmatic Presupposition, Speaker Belief, and Activated Propositions" 10:00 Lisa Ferro. "On 'Self' As a Focus Marker" 10:30 Jacques Lamarche, Univ. de Quebec a Montreal. "Conceptual Semantics is in the Speaker but ... Where is the Speaker?" 11:00 Break 11:15 INVITED SPEAKER: JOHN OHALA, Univ. of Alberta & Univ. of California at Berkeley. "A Critique of Autosegmental Phonology" 12:15 Lunch Break 1:45 INVITED SPEAKER: KEREN RICE, Univ. of Toronto. "The Coronal-Velar Connection" 2:45 Break PARALLEL SESSION A, 3:00-5:00 3:00 Steven H. Weinberger, George Mason Univ. "The Ins and Outs of Empty Vowels: Deletion and Insertion in Mandarin" 3:30 Joyce M. McDonough, UCLA. "Phonological Evidence for Bipartite Constituency in the Athabaskan Verbal Complex" 4:00 Christina M. Tortora, Univ. of Delaware. "Stop Voicing and the Phonological Word in Dakota" 4:30 Bruce L. Derwing, Univ. of Alberta. "Segment, Rime, Syllable, Tier or Root? Experimental Studies of Disyllabic Words in Arabic" PARALLEL SESSION B, 3:00-5:00 3:00 Sotaro Kita, Univ. of Chicago. "'Event Tier' in Semantic Representation: A Study of Japanese giongo/gitaigo ('Sound/Manner' Mimetics)" 3:30 Mitsuaki Shimojo, SUNY Buffalo. "Complement and Default Classifier Functions of Tsu and Ko in Japanese" 4:00 Alan Juffs, McGill Univ. "The Syntax and Semantics of Locative Verbs in Chinese" 4:30 Patrick Farrell, Univ. of California at Davis. "The Lexical Semantics of Verbs of Ingestion and Inhalation: Evidence from Berber" 5:00 Break 5:15 INVITED SPEAKER: RAY JACKENDOFF, Brandeis Univ. "The Boundaries of the Lexicon, or, If It Isn't Lexical, What Is It?" Evening: Party. SUNDAY, Nov. 15. 10:00 INVITED SPEAKER: NINA DRONKERS, VA Medical Center, Martinez and Univ. of California at Davis. "Cerebral Localization of Language Deficits" 11:00 Break 11:15 David Kemmerer, SUNY Buffalo. "A Critical Evaluation of Grodzinsky, Pierce, and Marakovitz's Neuropsychological Argument for a Transformational Analysis of Verbal Passive" 11:45 Farrell Ackerman & John Moore, Univ. of California at San Diego. "Grammatical Functions and Proto-Properties of Arguments" 12:15 Daniel Dor, Stanford University. "Towards a Semantic Account of Concealed Questions" 12:45 Noriko Watanabe, SUNY Buffalo. "Introductory Prologue and Well-Rehearsed Oral Narrative in Japanese" For more information, contact Matthew Dryer at LINDRYER@UBVMS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-708. Fri 18 Sep 1992. Lines: 46 Subject: 3.708 FYI: CORPORA, a new list Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 15:21:51 +0200 From: Knut Hofland Subject: New list: CORPORA, text corpora list -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 15:21:51 +0200 From: Knut Hofland Subject: New list: CORPORA, text corpora list The list is open for information and questions about text corpora such as availability, aspects of compiling and using corpora, software, tagging, parsing, bibliography, etc. To join the list: Send a message to CORPORA-REQUEST@X400.HD.UIB.NO Contributions to the list: Send messages to CORPORA@X400.HD.UIB.NO List administrator: Knut Hofland Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities, Harald Haarfagres gt. 31, N-5007 Bergen, Norway Phone +47 5 212954/5/6 Fax: +47 5 322656 E-mail: knut@x400.hd.uib.no -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-708. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-709. Mon 21 Sep 1992. Lines: 104 Subject: 3.709 FYI: ASL and Handedness; Indiana Lecture Series Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 13:32:49 PDT From: corina@gizmo.usc.edu (David Corina) Subject: ASL and Handedness 2) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 92 12:56:28 EST From: JROORYCK@ucs.indiana.edu Subject: announcement Indiana lecture series -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 13:32:49 PDT From: corina@gizmo.usc.edu (David Corina) Subject: ASL and Handedness A useful article can be found in: Vaid, Bellugi, & Poizner Hand Dominance for Signing: Clues to Brain Lateralization of Language Neuropsychologia (1989) Vol 27[7] 949-960 D.Corina U.S.C. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 92 12:56:28 EST From: JROORYCK@ucs.indiana.edu Subject: announcement Indiana lecture series The Syntax Reading Group at Indiana University presents the second lecture in its Multidisciplinary Seminar: The Indiana Lecture Series in Formal Syntax: Phrase structure and the Lexicon sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties Tim Stowell (UCLA) 'THE STRUCTURE OF TENSE' Wednesday, September 23, 1992 Ballantine Hall 005, at 7.30 p.m. ABSTRACT In this talk I construct a theory of tense and temporal refer- ence utilizing the GB subtheories of X-bar phrase structure, predicate-argument structure, binding, control, and quantification. The theory is based on a synthesis of Zagona's (1990) theory of tense and the theory of DP structure developed by Abney (1986) as amended in Stowell (1989). Tense is a dyadic predicate of temporal ordering, taking time- denoting phrases as arguments; thus a tense expresses a relation such as "Time X is before/after/simultaneous with Time Y". Like a verbal predicate, Tense projects a TP with its internal argument as its complement and its external argument as its subject. The internal argument of Tense denotes the time of the event or situation associated with the VP predicate; this argument is a time-denoting category called ZP ("Zeit-phrase"), analogous to the individual- denoting category DP. Z is the temporal analog of the definite or indefinite article, and it binds the temporal argument of VP, analogous to D binding the external "R" argument of NP. The external argument of Tense is a ZP analogue of PRO, denoting the reference time; in a matrix clause PRO-ZP lacks any c-commanding possible antecedent, and denotes Utterance Time; in an embedded clause, PRO- ZP is controlled by the temporal argument of the matrix VP. Within this framework, I sketch out a new approach to various theoretical issues involving tense, ranging from the phenomenon of "sequence of tense" (SOT) effects to the ordering of events in com- plex sentences. The account of SOT is based on the idea that in SOT languages such as English, "tense" morphology is not a realization of the category Tense, but rather a cliticized time-denoting phrase. The distinction between morphological past and present (in see/sees vs. saw) is analogous to the distinction between the negative polarity item any and its counterpart some; just as any signals the presence of a higher Negation, so morphological past signals the presence of a c-commanding Past Tense head, while not itself being an instance of Past. Thus morphological past is really a "Past Polarity Item" (PPI), whereas morphological present signals the absence of a c-commanding Past, analogous to some in relation to Negation. The relevant c-command relations hold at LF, reflecting de dicto/de re distinctions (cf. Abusch 1988). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-709. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-710. Mon 21 Sep 1992. Lines: 79 Subject: 3.710 Obituary: David Abercromby Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 13:29 GMT From: Richard Ogden Subject: David Abercrombie: obituary -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 13:29 GMT From: Richard Ogden Subject: David Abercrombie: obituary [An edited version of this obituary appeared in The Times at the end of August. The full version given here is sent with the permission of the author, John Kelly, Senior Lecturer in phonetics and phonology at the University of York.] David Abercrombie: Obituary Professor David Abercrombie FBA, phonetician, died in Edinburgh on July 4th at the age of 82. He was born in Birkenhead on December l9th 1909. Appointed Lecturer in Phonetics in the University of Edinburgh in 1948, David Abercrombie went on to establish within a decade an outstanding Department of Phonetics that was to attract academics and postgraduate students from throughout the world. The department was in these earlier years housed in a rather drab basement, but the quality of the teaching that took place there, of the ideas that underlay it and of the work done to elaborate these ideas into phonetic theory, rose well above that of the surroundings. Some part of Abercrombie's strength in building up his department came from the traditions of his background and the diversity of his experience. His father, Lascelles, was a distinguished scholar in the field of English Literature and a recognised poet; and both his uncle, Sir Patrick Abercrombie, the city planner and architect, and brother, Michael, the biologist, rose to distinction in their own spheres of academic activity. A particular advantage, though, was the training he received in London during the 1930s. Here, whilst working as a postgraduate student, he was taught by Jones and Firth at University College, and later at the LSE by Malinowski. In Edinburgh he was able, when moulding his own approach, to bring together in a well-integrated whole the sound and substantial phonetic training of Jones with the interest in wider linguistic concerns which characterised the work of Firth and Malinowski. In this he was aided by a number of excellent scholars some of whom had shared this early dual training in London. To this synthesis he added a deep knowledge of and respect for early writings on phonetics in Britain. This was not just an antiquarian interest - Abercrombie's aim was to demonstrate the values of the the earlier tradition and evoke new interest in it - and he took a quiet delight too in showing just how often the wheel had been re-invented, especially to pompous reinventors! His very special combination of interests and abilities led to a distinctive and cogent programme of teaching and research in Edinburgh, his own lucid and definitive writings being amongst its key products. He was appointed Professor in 1964. Abercrombie once said that an essential quality in the head of a university department must be kindness, to bring out the best in students and staff. The result of this belief was that his department was for many years a happy place to work in. He took a warm and unobtrusive interest in not only the academic activities of his staff, but also their personal welfare; and allowed his home to be a kind of extension of the department, providing there with his wife Mary a most generous and unassuming hospitality to staff, students, friends and visitors. His great relish for company and good food, and particularly the pleasure he took in fine wines, were a stimulus to the success of these occasions, as were his total lack of self-importance and his ability, despite an underlying shyness, to take an interest in people of all conditions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-710. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-711. Mon 21 Sep 1992. Lines: 110 Subject: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 08:33:32 BST From: David Denison Subject: English dialect syntax 2) Date: Sun, 20 Sep 92 07:54:59 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: The barber's paradox: a linguistic illusion? 3) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 15:19 EDT From: Cathy Ball Subject: Name of the letter 'y' in Norman -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 08:33:32 BST From: David Denison Subject: English dialect syntax On behalf of a student I'm trying to locate material relevant to a study of syntactic change in urban dialects of British English. "Relevant" includes corpora, recordings, publications in the secondary literature - whether to do with current speech or with dialects of earlier times. All help appreciated. Replies may be sent direct to me at the address d.denison@uk.ac.man (JANET users) or d.denison@man.ac.uk (from outside UK) Many thanks. David Denison -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 20 Sep 92 07:54:59 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: The barber's paradox: a linguistic illusion? A long time ago, somewhere (I thought it was in Hofstadter's "Goedel, Escher, Bach", but I can't find it there), some years ago then, in some book riddled with mathematical brain-teasers, I read about the Spanish barber. The story goes like this: There is a small Spanish town where every man who does not shave himself is shaved by the barber. Does the barber shave himself? and the discussion, roughly: Either the barber shaves himself or he doesn't. If he does not shave himself, then he is shaved by the barber; therefore he shaves himself. But if he shaves himself, he is not shaved by the barber, so... ... and so on ad nauseam. The conclusion reached, after invoking the manes of Bertrand Russell and whispering in awe of the mysteries of set theory, was that there can exist no such town. The Spanish barber paradox has always seemed vacuous to me. The argument makes sense if, and only if, you subscribe to the hidden assumption that the barber is not himself. That is nothing but a sleight of words in the use of the reflexive pronoun. Avoid the use of pronouns and the paradox disappears. Let every man in the village have a distinctive name, and let's call the barber Pablo. For any man there can be only two cases: 1. He shaves himself, viz Pepe shaves Pepe. 2. Pablo shaves him, viz Pablo shaves Pepe. What about Pablo? Those two cases are one and the same: 1. He shaves himself, i.e. Pablo shaves Pablo. 2. Pablo shaves him, i.e. Pablo shaves Pablo. Isn't that what we may call a linguistic illusion, or sleight of hand? Has anyone encountered other cases of sleight of words in scientific works? Or is it me who has gone soft in the brain? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 15:19 EDT From: Cathy Ball Subject: Name of the letter 'y' in Norman Can anyone suggest an answer (or a list on which I might get an answer) to the following question: how is it that the name of the letter 'y' in Norman French [as attested by a 12th century MS] was 'fix'? -- Cathy Ball (Georgetown) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-711. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-712. Mon 21 Sep 1992. Lines: 81 Subject: 3.712 Queries: Lists (Indonesian, Language Learning); Book Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 17:14:00 EDT From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." Subject: Indonesian list queries 2) Date: 21 Sep 1992 09:11:36 +0800 From: "NAME \"julia lee\"" Subject: Computer Assisted Language Learning Group 3) Date: 21 Sep 92 17:42:06 GMT-1200 From: LINGSUP@antnov1.aukuni.ac.nz Subject: query: booksearch -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 17:14:00 EDT From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell Univ." Subject: Indonesian list queries For a colleague, I am looking for e-mail lists which 1) discuss Indonesia(n), 2) are in Indonesian, or 3) bring news from Indonesia. Anyone who knows of any, please write to me directly: Wayles Browne, jn5j@cornella.bitnet or jn5j@cornella.cit.cornell.edu Thanks! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: 21 Sep 1992 09:11:36 +0800 From: "NAME \"julia lee\"" Subject: Computer Assisted Language Learning Group Sorry to bother you with yet another request for the address of the computer assisted language learning discussion group, but I'm really quite interested in joining the group. Anyone out there who might be able to help me subscribe to the group? I can be reached as follows: askslee@ntuvax.ac.sg Thanks. Julia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: 21 Sep 92 17:42:06 GMT-1200 From: LINGSUP@antnov1.aukuni.ac.nz Subject: query: booksearch i'm looking for conversational organization: interaction between speakers and hearers, by charles goodwin, now out of print. if anyone has an extra copy they'd like to sell, please send me a message to lingsup@antnov1.aukuni.ac.nz thanks fay wouk dept of anthropology university of auckland -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-712. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-713. Mon 21 Sep 1992. Lines: 357 Subject: 3.713 Last Posting on Punctuation Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 16 September 1992, 19:12:59 CST From: GA5123.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: Punctuation reform summary 2) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 13:20:51 -0500 From: acw@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Anthony C. Woodbury) Subject: 3.698 Punctuation 3) Date: 16 Sep 1992 15:47:01 -0400 (EDT) From: This space for rent Subject: Re: 3.698 Punctuation 4) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 22:53 EDT From: Christopher_OCALLAGHAN@umail.umd.edu (co15) Subject: Re: 3.698 Punctuation 5) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 13:27:25 +0200 From: HASPELMATH@philologie.fu-berlin.dbp.de Subject: anachronistic spelling rules 6) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 20:00:32 BST From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 3.698 Punctuation 7) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 09:07:13 CDT From: Michael Kac Subject: Re: 3.690 Queries: Unknown language; Punctuation Reform 8) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 20:50:31 GMT From: Michael Everson Subject: Reanalyses and Punctuation -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 16 September 1992, 19:12:59 CST From: GA5123.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: Punctuation reform summary I thank everyone who responded about punctuation reform. I thank Dave Eddington, George Fowler, Andy Kehler, Michael Niv, Peter Svenonius, Larry Trask, Bob Yates, and Arnold Zwicky for pointing me toward the essay that I had asked about: Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1984. "Punctuation and Human Freedom". NLLT, 4:419-425. Rpt. in G. K. Pullum, _The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language_ (University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 67-75. Also I thank Arnold Zwicky and Gregor Erbach for referring me to the following: Nunberg, Geoffrey. 1990. _The Linguistics of Punctuation_. "A CSLI volume, distributed by the University of Chicago Press". However, I have as yet received no practical suggestions for instigating the reform, other than to "get William Safire on our side". And he may already be there: I thank "Massimo" for referring to a column on the subject by Safire in the _New York Times Magazine_, "this year, or at most last year". By the way, the LSA Style Sheet seems to endorse "logical" punctuation, at least for the single quotes of glosses, as in the following: The word means 'cart', not 'horse'. I thank Ellen Prince for pointing this out. Larry Gorbet tells me that _Webster's Standard American Style Manual_ (Merriam-Webster, 1985), p. 42, first endorses the placement of all commas and periods inside quotes, then notes that "some writers" draw a distinction and punctuate according to sense. He quotes: "This distinction was previously observed in a wide range of publications, including U.S. Congressional publications and Merriam-Webster dictionaries." [Yes, period inside this time, since it's part of the quote -- LH] My 1984 MW dictionary's style sheet (pp. 1543-1544) does not mention the "logical" option. Likewise my 1977 MLA Handbook. In the following quotation from it, pardon my not adding a third set of quotation marks: "Read 'Kubla Khan,'" he told me. This illogical example appears on p. 28. Many people sympathized with my viewpoint, but -- I repeat -- hardly any practical suggestions were given. A few pointed out the probable futility of promoting reform. Thanks to all. ----------------------------------- Lee Hartman ga5123@siucvmb.bitnet Department of Foreign Languages Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 U.S.A. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 13:20:51 -0500 From: acw@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Anthony C. Woodbury) Subject: 3.698 Punctuation While standard editorial prescriptions for period-quotation mark ordering are annoying from the point of view of artificial language construction, they are familiar friends from natural language. If you assume that periods are more tightly "bound" than quotation marks (perhaps for aesthetic reasons?), then they show classic clitic behavior when logic dictates the opposite order. Tony Woodbury -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: 16 Sep 1992 15:47:01 -0400 (EDT) From: This space for rent Subject: Re: 3.698 Punctuation Mark Aronoff's example: "How goes the battle"? he inquired. would be unacceptable in the punctuation I learned in jr. high school. I learned that periods and commas go inside the quotes no matter what, but that other punctuation like question marks and exclamation marks are placed logically. So Aronoff's example would be "How goes the battle?" he enquired. And why is it we can't say '"How goes the battle?" enquired he' when we can say "how goes the battle?" enquired the soldier' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 22:53 EDT From: Christopher_OCALLAGHAN@umail.umd.edu (co15) Subject: Re: 3.698 Punctuation Placing commas and periods inside quotation marks goes back to the invention of moveable type. Period and comma type blocks are small. If set to the right of the "close quote" they were likely to move during inking or pressing. There may be a more complete (and authoratative) treatment in Michael Olmert's The Book of the Book (Smithsonian Press). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 13:27:25 +0200 From: HASPELMATH@philologie.fu-berlin.dbp.de Subject: anachronistic spelling rules If the strange "period inside quotation marks" rule has to do with the history of printing, this would not be the only case of a spelling rule that once had a function but is now completely useless and only harmful because of totally new typographical technology. Other examples are: --The spelling of "give", "have", "love" with a final "e"; this goes back to the time when there was no u/v distinction, so a word-final "v" could not be recognized as such. --The spelling of "monk", "come", "love", etc. with "o" rather than "u" because "m", "n" and "v" looked so similar to "u" in late medieval writing that it was safer to replace "u" in the vicinity of such letters by its closest neighbor, "o". --In German, the special letter "B" (I don't mean capital b, but the letter ess-zett, usually replaced by "ss" if the character is lacking) MUST be used at the end of the word, even where purely orthographic alternations arise, as in "lassen" ('let') vs. "laB" (imperative). This is due to the ban on final "ss" in the older German script that was in wide use until the 1930s. My conclusion is that unless we try to adapt our rules to changing environments (including techological changes, which occur at an ever faster pace), we may end up with a totally dysfunctional writing system. Rather than giving in to editors' demands, I would propose to found an editors' association for reasonable spelling. Aren't many of us editors themselves? Martin Haspelmath, Free University of Berlin -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 92 20:00:32 BST From: Ivan A Derzhanski Subject: 3.698 Punctuation > Date: 14 Sep 1992 10:21:59 -0400 (EDT) > From: Mark H Aronoff > > I have discussed this very > question many times with my editor wife. She has two reasonable points. > First, it looks better to have the punctuation mark inside the > quotation marks. (1) Better by whose standard? It definitely looks much worse to me. (2) I would think that the primary purpose of punctuation is to emphasise the logical structure of the text, not just to look pretty. (3) Irrespective of the subject area, an argument from aesthetics can't be called a reasonable point. > Second, other punctuation marks seem odd outside the quotation marks, > especially in direct discourse in a narrative. For example: "How > goes the battle"? he inquired. Right. The reason is that here it is a question that is being quoted, which is why the question mark belongs inside. Compare: How do you spell the word "dog"? See the difference? It is obvious to me that the rule was introduced by people who had not the slightest idea of the purpose of quotation marks, and I would suggest that at present it does the mischievous job of making people less aware of the purpose of quotation marks and punctuation in general. I think the fight deserves the time and effort. `If ye hiv ears oan yer heid - then use them tae lissen.' (The Glasgow Gospel) Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk; iad@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu) * Centre for Cognitive Science, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, UK * Cowan House, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 09:07:13 CDT From: Michael Kac Subject: Re: 3.690 Queries: Unknown language; Punctuation Reform Re Lee Hartman's comment on stupid punctuation conventions, yes, yes and again yes! But it goes farther -- it should work the same way with, e.g. parentheses. So if you parenthesize someting within a sentence, the period should go outside (like this). But if a whole sentence is parenthesized, the period should go inside. (Like this.) Experience suggests, however, that we won't get very far with this. Editors presume themselves to be the sole ex- perts in matters of this kind -- what does a bunch of mere linguists know about such things? Michael Kac -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 20:50:31 GMT From: Michael Everson Subject: Reanalyses and Punctuation Mark Aronoff states, on shifting the quotation mark and punctuation: >If you value your time and energy, give up! I have discussed this very >question many times with my editor wife. She has two reasonable points. >First, it looks better to have the punctuation mark inside the quotation >marks. Second, other punctuation marks seem odd outside the quotation marks, >especially in direct discourse in a narrative. For example: "How goes the >battle"? he inquired. First, no it doesn't look better to have the punctuation mark inside the quotation. Taste is a matter of exposure. :-) Second, the example you cite is not, I think, typical in any orthography I know of, English or not. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (OUP 1990) gives the following: 10.1 The main use is to indicate indirect speech and quotations. A single turned comma (') is normally used at the beginning, and a single apostrophe (') at the end of the quoted matter: She said, 'I have something to ask you.' [Note that American use (and some British use) used double quotation marks instead, cf. 10.5 below. ME] 10.2 The closing quotation mark should come after any punctuation mark which is a part of the quoted matter, but before any mark which is not: They shouted, 'Watch out!". They were described as 'an unruly bunch'. Did I hear you say 'go away!'? 10.3 Punctuation marks dividing a sentence of reported speech is put inside the quotation marks: 'Go away,' he said, 'and don't ever come back.' 10.4 Quotation marks are also used of cited words or phrases: What does 'integrated circuit' mean? 10.5 A quotation within a quotation is put in double quotation marks: 'Have you any idea,' he said, 'what "integrated circuit" means?' Keeping only the punctuation which _belongs_ to the quoted material within the quotation marks is sensible, logical, and non-arbitrary. It reminds me of the battle of whether a comma should be used before "and" in a list. The Concise Oxford treats this as well: 5.6.1 Commas are used to separate items in a list or sequence. Usage varies as to the inclusion of a comma before "and" in the last item; the practice fo this dictionary is to include it: The following will report at 9.30 sharp: Jones, Smith, Thompson, and Williams. 5.6.2 A final comma before "and", when used regularly and consistently, has the advantage of clarifying the grouping of a composite name occurring at the end of a list: We shall go to Smiths, Boots, Woolworths, and Marks and Spencer. It's always seemed to me that the American custom (and I was born and bred there) was too authoritarian. "You don't/can't/shouldn't put a comma before 'and'." "Why not?" "Because." In my typesetting and design courses at the School of Architecture, I teach my students to _think_ about content, not blindly follow form. The habit of including the comma with the quoted material ('dogs,') is widespread in Britain and Ireland as well. I say we expunge it in favo[u]r of the non-arbitrary alternatives. Interestingly, as we in English have no Acade/mie Anglaise, the suggestions or standards of the Oxford dictionaries are rarely taken on board either here or in North America. Take the suffix -ise/-ize, for instance, widely considered an Americanism by many English. The most eloquent treatment of the suffix is found in the Oxford Dictionary itself; that isn't to hand at the moment, but the Concise treats it as well: "The form '-ize' has been in use in English since the 16th c.; it is widely used in American English, but it is not an Americanism. The spelling '-ise' (reflecting French influence) is in common use, esp. in British English, and is obligatory in certain cases: (a) where it forms part of a larger word-element, such as '-mise' (= sending) in 'compromise', and '-prise' (= taking) in 'surprise'; and (b) in verbs corresponding to a noun with -s- in the stem, such as 'advertise' and 'televise'.... [from or after French -iser f. Late Latin -izare f. Greek -izo] On a reanalysis of ASL BE-CAREFUL: >and saw her father sign in ASL BE-CAREFUL in translation. She expressed >surprise that the ASL BE-CAREFUL was "be careful" in English. She said she >always thought it meant something like "keep your eyes/gaze on it" (that >is, she reanalyzed BE-CAREFUL to KEEP-EYES). Not a bad reanalysis since for >a deaf person, to be careful often *is* to be on the (visual) alert. Cf. German "Vorsicht!" 'Careful!' = Eng. foresight Alan Harris cited the word "posslq". "Posslq"? He also cited the American pronunciation of "sheik": >Lastly, English pron. of 'sheik' is [shi:k] (rhymes with "sleek"); the Arabic >is [sheyx]. Once again, from the Concise Oxford: Sheikh (also shaikh, sheik) /sheik/.... [ult. f. Arab. 'shayk_' old man, sheikh, f. 'shak_a' be or grow old.] Do American dictionaries give both variants /shi:k/ and /sheik/? Michael Everson School of Architecture, UCD, Richview, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, E/ire Phone: +353-1-706-2745 Fax: +353-1-283-7778 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-713. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-714. Mon 21 Sep 1992. Lines: 268 Subject: 3.714 Reanalyses Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 17:21 MST From: CAROLG@CC.UTAH.EDU Subject: Re: 3.701 Reanalyses 2) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 1:51:52 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: 3.703 Reanalyses 3) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 08:14:59 EDT From: CHRISTINE KAMPRATH Subject: RE: 3.703 Reanalyses 4) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 92 08:19:06 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Reanalyses 5) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 09:05 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Reanalyses 6) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 92 12:28:38 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: 3.703 Reanalyses 7) Date: 19 Sep 1992 20:43:54 -0700 (MST) From: WDEREUSE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: 3.703 Reanalyses 8) Date: Sun, 20 Sep 92 16:48:37 CDT From: Nancy L. Dray Subject: Re: 3.677 Reanalyses -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 17:21 MST From: CAROLG@CC.UTAH.EDU Subject: Re: 3.701 Reanalyses Well, if popular reanalyses from classified ads count, here are two of my favorites -- I've seen both of them more than once, and in different papers; in fact, classified ads might be a rich source __ For sale: four Chip 'n' Dale chairs ... For sale: black rot iron table ... Carol Georgopoulos -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 1:51:52 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: 3.703 Reanalyses A print-level reanalysis: upon seeing the word molesters, my son asked "Molesters? Are they like hamsters?" ALL of the pledge of allegiance is subject to constant reanalysis. I remember best the part: One nation under guard... And from the song "God Bless America" the line Through the night with a light from a bulb The column "Toward more Picturesque Speech" in Readers' Digest is a good source of such data. JAG SUNY -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 08:14:59 EDT From: CHRISTINE KAMPRATH Subject: RE: 3.703 Reanalyses Here are a couple I've read recently, both from in-flight airline magazines: 1) using "undo" for "undue", as in (this isn't verbatim--I can't remember the exact phrase used) "without undo regret" 2) "...she thought she might enjoy "wiling away the time" with her neighbor's husband (I thought this a clever and hilarious pun until I showed it to a friend, who saw nothing funny about it.) A couple from childhood memorization misunderstandings: 1) "we three kings of orrie and tar" (I remember thinking that I knew what tar was, but what on earth was "orrie"? no matter, I didn't know what myrrh was either--those kings had lots of exotic stuff) 2) "conceited by the Holy Ghost" (surely not "conceded," since I couldn't have known what that meant at age 7 or so); this was my improvement on what must be a sloppy pronunciation--everyone else said "conceived", but they also said "often" without the "t", so their example was clearly not to be followed I have a hard time swallowing "elemental B", by the way. By the time a child had any notion what "elemental" meant, such that it distinguished one kind of B from another, he or she would also have discovered that that stretch of the "abc jingle" was more letters of the alphabet. I've heard that Tonto's name for the Lone Ranger, [kimosabe] (according to the TV series of the 50's or so), is an English pronunciation of the Portuguese words _quem o sabe_ 'who knows him?' Can anyone corroborate this? Was the Lone Ranger story written in Portuguese before the English TV show popularized this name? Christine Kamprath -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 92 08:19:06 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Reanalyses In Vol 3-703 Mark Mandel objects to my contention that the spelling 'imput' might well be perfectly natural (since human beings naturally like to spell things at something like their phonemic representations (actually, more superficial than that, but that does not matter here)). The objection is that, unlike in my examples of phonemic (or subphonemic) spelling from other languages (in this case, Dutch), the English spelling in question is atypical of its own language (English does NOT normally indicate this assimilation in writing). But that is precisely the point! We are dealing with a substandard spelling which shows, we hope, what people would like to do, not what they have been taught normatively how to do. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1992 09:05 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Reanalyses I don't have the source, but I recall reading recently that a medical school was putting together a list of what we would call reanalyses of medical terms. The one that comes to mind from the article, and one that may have already been cited during this thread, is "oldtimers disease" for "Altzheimer's disease." The school in question set out to do this because they found that their students and interns had trouble communicating with medically naive patients and they wanted to provide some sort of lexicon for them. Herb Stahlke Ball State University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 92 12:28:38 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: 3.703 Reanalyses >Date: Thu, 17 Sep 92 09:20:13 CST >From: (Dennis Baron) >Subject: reanalysis >... >Here's another one: last night I was reading "The Berenstain Bears >Forget Their Manners" to my 3 year old son. In the text, Papa Bear >calls a driver he has just bunked [sic; another kid term] into a >pinhead or some such. just a bit of dialect trivia: _bunk_ 'bump' is a venerable new york city lexical item, originally from the dutch (they got there first, remember). i grew up saying 'guess who i bunked into today!' and 'i bunked my elbow' and so forth. when i started reading and seeing _bump_ where i would say _bunk_, i just assumed it was one of those funny spellings, like _clothes_ /klowz/ or _wednesday_ /wenzdi/. it wasn't till i took a dialect geography course at nyu that i learned they were in fact distinct lexical items. by the way, pennsylvania dutch speakers apparently say _bunker_ for '[car] bumper' but new yorkers don't. addendum: after 25 years of living outside of nyc, i have come to say _bump into someone_ but i STILL _bunk_ my elbow--somehow _bump one's elbow_ fails to capture for me that special feeling of hitting the funny bone. go figure... in another vein, after reading claudia brugman's confession about the lyrics of _silent night_, i'll own up to having believed that _the battle hymn of the republic_ was about vitamin pills. i can't remember how (i thought) it went, but there was definitely a rousing 'vitamin a' in there somewheres. in the area of things like _take a different tact_, one hears (and reads) _no holes barred_, _digestive track_, _prostrate gland_, _exhilarator_ ('accelerator'), and _sparkling paste_ ('spackling...'). my all-time favorite, though, is something i saw once in a freshman composition and leave as an exercise to the reader to gloss: 'it's a doggie-dog world.' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: 19 Sep 1992 20:43:54 -0700 (MST) From: WDEREUSE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: 3.703 Reanalyses I would like to submit the following two strabge but genuine cases of reanalysis, which my father tells me he did as a child in the 1930ies, under the influence of heavy Catholic Catechization, and the Latin Mass. The garden of Gethsemani (where Christ suffered), was for him the garden of Jef Semani. (Jef is a common Flemish first name). In the Latin Pater Noster or Lord's Prayer, he heard: sicut et nos dimikimus debitoribus nostris. (instead of dimittimus) [miki mus] was the local Flemish pronunciation for Mickey Mouse. Such mishearings are, I would think, reinforced by a child's desperate attempt to make some sense of something quite obscure. Willem J. de Reuse Departement of Anthropology University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Date: Sun, 20 Sep 92 16:48:37 CDT From: Nancy L. Dray Subject: Re: 3.677 Reanalyses Another famous one similar to "misled" is "bed-raggled" (how you look when you first get up). Also, I often stumble over "bedridden"(buhDRIdden), "outrage" (pronounced as if French, ooTRAGE), and, because it is a keyword in my dictionary so i often see it as I am flipping pages, "barfly" (BARF-ly, as in, presumably, "John was a bit barfly after spending three whole days at the pub"). And Jerry Sadock says that his son, Ben, first though that "farfetched" must be a Yiddish word, because of the prefix. As for misinterpretations of the "Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear" type, last year (or was it the year before?), I kept hearing "the 62nd All-Star Game" (baseball) as "the sixty-second All-Star Game" (i.e., one minute long). And A friend's daughter thought the dark blue color was called "maybe blue" (not "navy blue"), because "maybe it's blue and maybe it's black" (that one's my all-time favorite). Then there's that phrase I keep hearing on the radio traffic report: "salad on the Eisenhower." Truly (I swear!), the first time I heard this I thought it was some kind of metaphor for a real jumble of traffic, like a tossed salad. Imagine my disappointment when I realized this was just "solid (i.e., solid traffic) on the Eisenhower" in a Chicago accent... Best wishes, Nancy L. Dray P.S. I almost forgot "assuage," a word I learned from reading and always pronounced "aSEWage" until people started laughing at me. Also, for non-Chicagoans, the Eisenhower is an expressway. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-714. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-715. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 268 Subject: 3.715 LASSO Program Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 11:35:20 MST From: Terry Langendoen Subject: complete WECOL/LASSO conference program -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 11:35:20 MST From: Terry Langendoen Subject: complete WECOL/LASSO conference program For registration forms and information about the hotel, reply to wecol92@ccit.arizona.edu or wecol92@arizvms (bitnet). Deadline for hotel reservations (guaranteed rates and space) has been extended to September 28. ************************************************************************ Preliminary Program of the 22ND WESTERN CONFERENCE ON LINGUISTICS (WECOL92), being held together with the annual meeting of the LINGUISTIC ASSOCIATION OF THE SOUTHWEST (LASSO), October 16-18, 1992, at the Doubletree Hotel, Tucson, Arizona. FRIDAY MORNING, OCT. 16 8:00-10:00 LASSO/WECOL Registration, Bonsai-Boojum lobby Coffee, tea, soft drinks 9:20-11:00 WECOL SESSION A, Syntax 1, Bonsai-Boojum Chair: Simin Karimi (U Arizona) 9:20-9:45 Kuo-ming Sung (UCLA) A/A' Incorporation and Agreement 9:45-10:10 Elly Van Gelderen (U Groningen) Agreement features: Dutch and various stages of English vs. modern English 10:10-10:35 Bernhard Rohrbacher (U Mass) English AUX^NEG, Mainland Scandinavian NEG^AUX, and the Theory of V to I Raising 10:35-11:00 Andrew Barss (U Arizona) Target Extension and Syntactic Derivations 11:15-12:15 WECOL Keynote address, Bonsai-Boojum. David Perlmutter (UCSD) What is Foot Structure? Chair: Diana Archangeli (U Arizona) FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCT. 16 12:30-2:15 LASSO/WECOL Registration, Bonsai-Boojum lobby Coffee, tea, soft drinks 1:30-3:10 WECOL SESSION B, Language Acquisition, Bonsai Chair: Adrienne Lehrer (U Arizona) 1:30-1:55 Dale W. Russell & J. Michael Lake (U Illinois, Champaign-Urbana) Unification-Based Lexical Acquisition from Context 1:55-2:20 Paul Bloom (U Arizona) Theories of Subject Omission in Language Development 2:20-2:45 Keiko Murasagi (Kinjo Gakuin U) The Route that Children Take to Retreat from Overgeneration 2:45-3:10 Andrew Barss, Paul Bloom, Janet Nicol & Laura Conway (U Arizona) The Development of The Disjoint Reference Condition: Formal and Experimental Considerations 1:30-2:55 LASSO SESSION 1, Studies in American Indian Languages, Boojum. Chair: Heather Hardy (U North Texas) 1:30-1:55 Albert Bickford (Summer Institute of Linguistics) A Rich Model for Text Glossing 1:55-2:20 David Shaul (U Arizona) Syntactic Evidence for the Taracahitic Subfamily 2:20-2:45 Dean F. Saxton (Summer Institute of Longuistics) Clues to Basic Word Order in O'odham 2:45-3:10 Mark W. Tremper (Summer Institute of Linguistics) San Felipe Keres a la Mode 3:25-4:40 WECOL SESSION C, Phonology 1, Bonsai. Chair: Richard Demers (U Arizona) 3:25-3:50 Raul Aranovich (UC San Diego) Tone Sandhi in Acatlan Mixtec 3:50-4:15 Dawn Bates (ASU) Prosodic Licensing in Salish: Diminutive Reduplication in Spokane and Lushootseed 4:15-4:40 Sharon Inkelas & Orhan Orgun (UC Berkeley) Extrametricality and Syllable Weight in Turkish 3:25-4:40 LASSO SESSION 2, Foreign and Second Language Pedagogy, Boojum. Chair: Jon Jonz (East Texas State U) 3:25-3:50 Ann Beck (Northern Arizona U) Comparing the Incompara- ble: Testing Language Dominance in Navajo and English 3:50-4:15 Leslie Norfleet (Northern Arizona U) Second Language Reading of University Spanish Students 4:15-4:40 Norris P. McKinney & Shin Ja J. Hwang (U Texas, Arlington) Fortis versus Lenis Consonants: A Pedagogical Perspective 3:25-4:40 LASSO SESSION 3, Discourse Analysis, Ironwood Chair: Marianne Cooley (U Houston) 3:25-3:50 Margie White (Northern Arizona U) Who Gets to be Secre- tary?: A Discourse Analysis of Three Job Interviews 3:50-4:15 Kathleen Hogan (New Mexico State U) Ethnic Eavesdropping: Linguistic Analysis of a Radio Talk Show 4:15-4:40 Domnita Dumitrescu (California State U, Los Angeles) On the Syntactic Structure and Discourse Function of Multiple Constituent Repetitive Questions in Romanian 5:00-6:00 LASSO Keynote address, Bonsai-Boojum. Douglas Biber (Northern Arizona U) Linguistic Correlates of the Transition to Literacy in Somalia 6:30-8:00 LASSO/WECOL Reception, Pool Area SATURDAY MORNING, OCT. 17. 8:00-10:00 LASSO/WECOL Registration, Bonsai-Boojum lobby Continental Breakfast 8:30-10:10 WECOL SESSION D, Phonology 2, Ironwood. Chair: Dawn Bates (Arizona State U) 8:30-8:55 Jan Mohammad (U Arizona) The Sonority Sequencing Principle Revisited 8:55-9:20 Sin-Sook Lee (U Wisconsin-Madison) Toward a Unified Articulator Theory 9:20-9:45 Willem J. DeReuse (U Arizona) Svarabhakti in Dutch: from Phonetic Non-Rule to Phonological Rule 9:45-10:10 Larry Hagberg (Summer Institute of Linguistics) The Residue as a Domain for Stress Assignment 8:30-10:10 WECOL SESSION E, Syntax 3, Bonsai. Chair: Susan Steele (U Arizona) 8:30-8:55 Tracy Holloway King (Stanford U) Russian Verbs and Refining the UTAH 8:55-9:20 Patrick Farrell (UC, Davis) Generalized Transformations and Verbs of Appearance in English 9:20-9:45 Farrell Ackerman & Phil LeSourd (UC, San Diego) Preverbs and Complex Predicates 9:45-10:10 Kumiko Murasugi (MIT) NP Movement in Ergative Languages 8:30-10:10 LASSO SESSION 4, Morphology and Syntax, Boojum Chair: Domnita Dumitrescu (Trinity U) 8:30-8:55 Harry Howard (Tulane U) Fronting Adverbials in English and Spanish 8:55-9:20 William C. Spruiell (U Houston) Explaining the Meanings of Participant Nouns 9:20-9:45 Harmon S. Boertien (U Houston) Problems with the Right- hand Head Rule, Relativized or Not 9:45-10:10 Richard D. Janda (U Chicago) On Morphological Stipulation: Disjunctivity of Processual Rules vs. Lexical Level-Ordering of Feature Assignment 10:25-12:05 WECOL SESSION F, Syntax 4, Bonsai. Chair: Grant Goodall (U Texas, El Paso) 10:25-10:50 T. Daniel Seely (Eastern Michigan U) The Syntax of Plural Pronominals 10:50-11:15 Maria Polinsky (MIT) Locative Inversion and Subject Incorporation: Different Morphology, Same Syntax 11:15-11:40 Ezat Karimi (U Texas at Austin) A Functional Analysis of Pro with Arbitrary Interpretation 11:40-12:05 Keiko Murasagi & Mamoru Saito (Kinjo Gakuin U & U Connecticut) Quasi-Adjuncts as Sentential Arguments 10:25-12:05 LASSO SESSION 5, Sociolinguistics, Ironwood Chair: Shaw N. Gynan (Western Washington U) 10:25-10:50 Kathleen Linnes (U Houston) Patterns in German-English Code Switching 10:50-11:15 Mary Jane Hurst (Texas Tech U) Language and Social Networks in Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist 11:15-11:40 Elizabeth Bohon (U Arizona) Regular: A Politically Motivated Definition 11:40-12:05 Garland D. Bills, Eduardo Hern ndez-Ch vez and Alan Hudson (U New Mexico) Contact and Maintenance: The Role of Geographical Distance in Language Shift 10:25-12:05 LASSO SESSION 6, Linguistic Studies in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Boojum Chair: Shin Ja J. Hwang (U Texas, Arlington) 10:25-10:50 Insun Yang (Rice U) Korean VP Conjunction Marker 'ko' 10:50-11:15 Tatsushi Motohashi (Trinity U) On 'wo' Marking in Old Japanese and Chomsky's Minimalist Program 11:15-11:40 Grover K. Yu (California State U, Fresno) Using Thematic Roles to Classify Chinese Verbs SATURDAY AFTERNOON, OCT. 17. 12:15-2:00 Joint WECOL/LASSO Luncheon and Keynote Address, Bonsai- Boojum. Eloise Jelinek (U Arizona) Distributing Argu- ments. Chair: Jane Hill (U Arizona) 2:00-3:30 LASSO/WECOL Registration, Bonsai-Boojum lobby Coffee, tea, soft drinks 2:15-4:20 WECOL SESSION G, Semantics, Bonsai. Chair: Richard Oehrle (U Arizona) 2:15-2:40 Meng Yeh (U Texas, Austin) Experiential Markers and Quantification 2:40-3:05 Soonhyuck Park (U Wisconsin-Madison) The Locality Condition and Binding at LF 3:05-3:30 Petra Hendriks (U Groningen) Multiple Head Comparison and Infinite Regress 3:30-3:55 Mark Kas & Eric Hoekstra (U Groningen, P.J. Meertens- Inst) Negative Polarity and Conditions on Typelifting 3:55-4:20 Mario Montalbetti (U Texas, El Paso) Material Antecedents 2:15-4:20 LASSO SESSION 7, Psycholinguistics and First Language Acquisition, Ironwood. Chair: Garland Bills (UNM) 2:15-2:40 Linda van der Wal (Arizona State U) Spelling: More than 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' 2:40-3:05 Dianne Hobbs (Virginia Tech U) Gender-related Strategies in Adult Directives to Children in Mexican Spanish 3:05-3:30 Donna E. Cromer (UNM) for Facilitating Language Acquisi- tion: Evidence from a Naturalistic Study of One Child 3:30-3:55 Mollie Walton (Trinity U) Language Acquisition: The Contribution of Research with Non-human Primates to Current Linguistic Theory 3:55-4:20 Muriel Saville-Troike (U Arizona) Development of the Inflected Verb in Navajo Child Language 2:15-4:20 LASSO SESSION 8, Indigenous Languages of Mexico, Boojum Chair: Viola Waterhouse (SIL) 2:15-2:40 Thomas Willett (SIL) The Grammaticization of Tense in Southeastern Tepehu n 2:40-3:05 Carole Jamieson (SIL) A Survey of Chiquihuitl n Mazatec Interrogatives 3:05-3:30 Barbara E. Hollenbach (SIL) Covert Transitive- Intransitive Verb Pairs in Copala Trique 3:30-3:55 Stephen A. Marlett (SIL) Indirect Objects in Seri 3:55-4:20 Laura H. Gittlen (SIL) Motion Verbs in Northern Tlaxiaco Mixtec 4:30-5:30 LASSO Presidential Address, Bonsai-Boojum Jon Jonz (East Texas State U) Language, Text and CLOZE Chair: Donald E. Hardy (U North Texas) 5:30-6:30 LASSO Executive Council Meeting, Basswood SUNDAY MORNING, OCT. 18 8:00-10:00 Continental Breakfast, Bonsai-Boojum lobby 8:30-9:55 WECOL SESSION H Syntax 5, Bonsai. Chair: Feng-Hsi Liu (U Arizona) 8:30-8:55 Dingxu Shi (USC & UC, Irvine) The Specificity Requirement and the Structure of Predication 8:55-9:20 Naoko Nemoto (U Connecticut) A note on Case Positions in Japanese 9:20-9:55 Kazuhiko Fukushima (Michigan State U) Subcategorization, Feature Structures, and Honorification in Japanese 8:30-9:55 WECOL SESSION I, Lexicon and Morphology, Ironwood Chair: Willem DeReuse (U Arizona) 8:30-8:55 Hana Filip (UC, Berkeley) Verbal Aspect and Object Case Marking: A Comparison between Czech and Finnish 8:55-9:20 Shobhana Chelliah (U Texas, Austin) Case and Pragmatic Marking in Manupuri 9:20-9:55 Adrienne Lehrer (U Arizona) Blocking and the Principle of Conventionality 8:30-9:55 LASSO SESSION 9, Linguistic Analysis of Literature, Boojum. Chair: Mary Jane Hurst (U North Texas) 8:30-8:55 Karen Milton & Tim Hagood (U North Texas) The Divided Consciousness: Orality and Literacy in Hamlet 8:55-9:20 Marianne Cooley (U Houston) Language Attitudes: Literary Evidence 9:20-9:55 Donald E. Hardy (Northern Illinois U) The Distribution and Function of Relative Clauses in Literary Narrative 10:10-11:25 WECOL SESSION J, Syntax 6, Bonsai. Chair: Andrew Barss (U Arizona) 10:10-10:35 Jan Mohammad & Simin Karimi (U Arizona) 'Light' Verbs Are Taking Over: Complex Verbs in Persian 10:35-11:00 Ke Zou (USC & Cal State U, Dominguez Hills) Specificity Effects in the Chinese NP Movement and WH-Extraction Locality 11:00-11:25 Grant Goodall (U Texas, El Paso) Spec-Head Agreement as the Motivation for NP-Movement 10:10-11:00 WECOL SESSION K, Syntax 7, Ironwood. Chair: Janet Nicol (U Arizona) 10:10-10:35 Carl Alphonce & Henry Davis (UBC) Multiple Dependencies and Centre-Embedding 10:35-11:00 Laurent P. Dekydspotter (Cornell U) Reconstruction of Nested Variables and Locality 10:10-11:25 LASSO SESSION 10, Text Theory and Analysis, Boojum Chair: Donald E. Hardy (Northern Illinois U) 10:10-10:35 Randi Gilbert (Northern Arizona U) A Comparison of Textbook Genre Models and Student Texts 10:35-11:00 Carolyn G. Hartnett (Collete of the Mainland) How do Human Interest Stories Differ from News Reports? 11:00-11:25 Robert E. Longacre (U Texas, Arlington) Sentence Structure as Constraints on the Use of 'and' 11:30-12:00 WECOL Business Meeting, Bonsai 11:30-12:00 LASSO Business Meeting, Boojum -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-715. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-716. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 303 Subject: 3.716 The Barber Paradox (Part 1) Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:27:25 -0400 From: Stavros Macrakis Subject: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix 2) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 18:17:08 +0200 From: Steve Berman Subject: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix 3) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 11:53:50 CDT From: drussell@lees.cogsci.uiuc.edu (Dale Russell) Subject: 3.711 The barber's paradox 4) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 17:46:41 EDT From: frnk411!frnk405!will@uunet.UU.NET (William Dowling) Subject: The Barber (paradox regained) 5) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 10:19 +8 From: CTTOMLAI@cphkvx.cphk.hk Subject: Re: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:27:25 -0400 From: Stavros Macrakis Subject: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix J.Guy asks about the barber's paradox: "Or is it me who has gone soft in the brain?" I doubt that's the problem, but his analysis is incorrect. There is no "sleight of words in the use of the reflexive pronoun". Let's forget about towns and barbers and shaving and look at the problem abstractly. Premise: NOT f(x,x) IFF f(x,B). Now, is f(B,B) true? Well, let's plug in B for x in the premise: NOT f(B,B) IFF f(B,B). This is a contradiction, so the original definition of "f" is flawed. -s PS By the way, the "mathematical brain-teaser" (in set form, rather than predicative form) is actually Bertrand Russell's demonstration that Cantor's set theory had a fatal flaw, a major event in the history of logic. PPS _Goedel, Escher, Bach_ is a bad book. It takes such simple but deep ideas as the barber's paradox and Goedel's theorem and universal Turing machines, and dresses them up with empty rhetoric and mystification ("whispering in awe of the mysteries of set theory", as J. Guy puts it) so you miss the basic point. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 18:17:08 +0200 From: Steve Berman Subject: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix Jacques Guy gives the paradox of the barber as follows: There is a small Spanish town where every man who does not shave himself is shaved by the barber. Does the barber shave himself? and this explanation of it: Either the barber shaves himself or he doesn't. If he does not shave himself, then he is shaved by the barber; therefore he shaves himself. But if he shaves himself, he is not shaved by the barber, so... He suggests, however, that there is no paradox: The argument makes sense if, and only if, you subscribe to the hidden assumption that the barber is not himself. That is nothing but a sleight of words in the use of the reflexive pronoun. Avoid the use of pronouns and the paradox disappears. Let every man in the village have a distinctive name, and let's call the barber Pablo. For any man there can be only two cases: 1. He shaves himself, viz Pepe shaves Pepe. 2. Pablo shaves him, viz Pablo shaves Pepe. What about Pablo? Those two cases are one and the same: 1. He shaves himself, i.e. Pablo shaves Pablo. 2. Pablo shaves him, i.e. Pablo shaves Pablo. Isn't that what we may call a linguistic illusion, or sleight of hand? Like Guy, I have been acquainted with this story for some time but am also unable to find it cited in any of the literature I have at hand; the following remarks are just my spontaneous response to Guy's representation of it. It is easy to see what is going on if we translate the story into a first-order predicate calculus notation ('A' is the universal quantifier, 'S' is the binary relation of shaving, 'b' is the barber). The version related by Guy may be rendered as: Ax(-Sxx --> Sbx) If we add the premise that the barber does not shave himself (-Sbb) we get an immediate contradiction by universal instantiation and modus ponens. But no contradiction arises if we add the premise that the barber shaves himself. Therefore, the version given above is no paradox. However, the following version is paradoxical (i.e., contradictory), as its predicate calculus translation coupled with either of the premises -Sbb or Sbb shows: Every man who doesn't shave himself is shaved by the barber but every man who does shave himself is not shaved by the barber. Ax((-Sxx --> Sbx) & (Sxx --> -Sbx)) This version of the paradox is implicit in Guy's explanation; however, in his attempt to demonstrate that there's no paradox, he reverts to his original statement, i.e., leaving out the crucial second conjunct. This version (i.e., with both conjuncts) is also equivalent to Ax(Sxx <--> -Sbx) i.e., 'every man shaves himself if and only if the barber doesn't shave him', which makes the paradoxicality even plainer. As for the version given by Guy, we might allow that it is also paradoxical by 'linguistic sleight of hand', that is, by a kind of implicature of the natural language idiom that makes the original (material) implication understood as the contradictory biconditional. (Of course, there's no contradiction if the barber is removed from the domain of quantification--'every man except for the barber'.) --Steve Berman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 11:53:50 CDT From: drussell@lees.cogsci.uiuc.edu (Dale Russell) Subject: 3.711 The barber's paradox There is indeed a hidden, and invalid assumption, at least in the way the paradox is formulated here. >> There is a small Spanish town where every man who does not >> shave himself is shaved by the barbar. On reading this, we ASSUME that the converse is also true; that every man who does shave himself is not shaved by the barbar. But this is nowhere stated. The sentence is just silent about men who do shave themselves. And it turns out that the barber is just such a case. He is a man who does shave himself, and is also shaved by the barber. So in this formulation, there is no paradox at all. Maybe this is just another way of describing what you claimed to be the hidden assumption, `that the barber is not himself.' I had a hard time figuring out what that meant. But the example with Pepe and Pablo looks correct. But as you noted, this so-called paradox has been put forth many times, and probably stated more carefully in some formulations than others. If the statement of the problem had been >> There is a small Spanish town where ALL AND ONLY those men who >> do not shave themselves are shaved by the barbar. then I see no way around the paradox. That is, if you accept another hidden (and invalid) assumption, that the barber is a man. If the barber is a woman, then, again, the paradox goes away. But of course, that's just due to insufficient precision in the statement of the scenario. Dale Russell -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 17:46:41 EDT From: frnk411!frnk405!will@uunet.UU.NET (William Dowling) Subject: The Barber (paradox regained) Re the recent posting of j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) on the Barber paradox: The statement > There is a small Spanish town where every man who does not shave > himself is shaved by the barber. Does the barber shave himself? indeed is not contradictory, since it admits the possibility that the barber may shave other folks in addition to those who don't shave themselves. In particular, this allows the loophole that he shaves himself, as was pointed out. Stated a little more carefully, however, there really is a contradiction: There is a town in which there is a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves. This is how I have explained this paradox (and the heterological paradox, and the halting problem, and in fact all diagonalization arguments) to students: You have a square matrix M, all of whose cells contain either a 1 or a 0. Let M[i,j] (that is the cell in column j of row i) have a 1 if resident i (of our small hypothetical Spanish town) shaves resident j. Thus if there were a peculiar fellow (P) who (quite the opposite from the putative barber) shaved all and only those folks who shaved themselves, there would be a row (P) of the matrix, which, cell-for-cell, was equal to the diagonal: M[P,1] = M[1,1]; M[P,2] = M[2,2]; ... etc. The existence of such a guy, however odd, is not contradictory. But on the other hand, if there were a barber Q who shaved all and only those people who did _not_ shave themselves, then we would be saying for some row Q of the matrix, M[Q,1] ~= M[1,1] and M[Q,2] ~= M[2,2], etc. But the diagonal of any matrix intersects all its rows: looking at row Q, column Q, we have M[Q,Q] ~= M[Q,Q]. That is the contradiction. So there can be no such guy Q. Another way of saying it is that no row of a binary matrix can be the negation of its diagonal. If you have a taste for such things, you can prove Kleene's recursion theorem this way, too. Will Dowling (will@franklin.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 10:19 +8 From: CTTOMLAI@cphkvx.cphk.hk Subject: Re: 3.711 Queries: English Dialect Syntax, Paradoxes, Norman fix > From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) > Subject: The barber's paradox: a linguistic illusion? > > There is a small Spanish town where every man who does not shave > himself is shaved by the barber. Does the barber shave himself? > > ... and so on ad nauseam. The conclusion reached, after invoking the manes > of Bertrand Russell and whispering in awe of the mysteries of set theory, > was that there can exist no such town. The Spanish barber paradox has > always seemed vacuous to me. The argument makes sense if, and only if, > you subscribe to the hidden assumption that the barber is not himself. > That is nothing but a sleight of words in the use of the reflexive pronoun. > Avoid the use of pronouns and the paradox disappears. Let every man in > the village have a distinctive name, and let's call the barber Pablo. > > For any man there can be only two cases: > > 1. He shaves himself, viz Pepe shaves Pepe. > 2. Pablo shaves him, viz Pablo shaves Pepe. > > What about Pablo? Those two cases are one and the same: > > 1. He shaves himself, i.e. Pablo shaves Pablo. > 2. Pablo shaves him, i.e. Pablo shaves Pablo. > > Isn't that what we may call a linguistic illusion, or sleight of > hand? I don't think that is really a linguistic illusion. I owe Jacgues Guy a favour for using his COGNATE, but I cannot agree with his view here. As presented in J. Guy's posting, the 'paradox' is reduced to: For every individual x in the Spanish town, Either x shaves x Or Pablo (the barber) shaves x And hence the 'paradox' is not a paradox. The problem is that the above interpretation of the paradox is not correct. The correct (sorry for having to use this word, but _ich kann nicht anders_) interpretation is: For every individual x in the Spanish town, If x does not shave x Then Pablo (the barber) shaves x The paradox is that Pablo shaves Pablo and Pablo does not shave Pablo both lead to contradiction. Tom Lai, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-716. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-717. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 158 Subject: 3.717 The Barber Paradox (Part 2) Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 13:45 +8 From: Tom Lai Subject: Re: 3.711 Queries: Paradoxes 2) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 00:27:09 MEZ From: "David M. W. Powers" Subject: The barber is a woman! -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 13:45 +8 From: Tom Lai Subject: Re: 3.711 Queries: Paradoxes > From: CPCCVX::CTTOMLAI 22-SEP-1992 10:19 > > For every individual x in the Spanish town, > If x does not shave x > Then Pablo (the barber) shaves x > I must add that the paradox requires further that If Pablo (the barber) shaves x Then x does not shave x This does not follow from the way in which the problem was described (in words) by Jacques Guy. But the paradox as appears in the literature should require the conditional to be bi-directional. I can try and find a more accurate (verbal) rendering of the paradox if there's a need to do so. Tom Lai, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 00:27:09 MEZ From: "David M. W. Powers" Subject: The barber is a woman! >A long time ago, somewhere (I thought it was in Hofstadter's "Goedel, >Escher, Bach", but I can't find it there), some years ago then, in some >book riddled with mathematical brain-teasers, I read about the Spanish >barber. The story goes like this: > > There is a small Spanish town where every man who does not shave > himself is shaved by the barber. Does the barber shave himself? No! Because the barber cannot be a man (and I make the charitable assumption that she doesn't need to shave). So the linguistic trick is that the neutral reflexive in English implies the male reading. Are you sure, Jacques, that you didn't encounter it in Bob Kowalski's 1979 book "The Logic of Programming"? There a similar example is used to illustrate that there are problems which (i) can't be expressed in Horn Clauses (Definite Clause Logic) effectively, and (ii) can't be solved by resolution alone (without merging, factoring or equivalent). It was expressed slightly differently (from memory): Everyone either shaves himself or is shaved by every barber. Nobody both shaves himself and is shaved by a barber. (Viz. above should be read as exclusive or.) Show that there can be no barber. (Or equivalently, how many barbers must there be?) Using proof by contradiction, we express this in clausal (PROLOG type) notation (where ":- is read as "if", "," is read as "or" on the left and "and" on the right - actually "," is always "or", but the terms to the right of the ":-" are negated - it is a conjunctive normal form, in which all variables are exclusively quantified within a clause): s(B,X), s(X,X) :- b(B). If B is a barber, B shaves X or X shaves X. :- s(B,X), s(X,X), b(B). If B is a barber, not B shaves X or not X shaves X. b(bob). bob is a barber (the claim we want to contradict). resolving on the b(B) terms gives: s(bob,X), s(X,X). :- s(bob,X), s(X,X). Factoring both (unifying terms of a clause to give a special case or factor): s(bob,bob). :- s(bob,bob). Resolution leads to a contradiction. QED. (N.B. In this notation the convenient PROLOG "if" reading is a little awkward, and you need to know that an empty left hand side means FALSE, and an empty right hand side means TRUE - this follows if you remember that a clause is a disjunction ("or" of terms, AT LEAST ONE of which must be true) and the left hand context retains this character whilst the right hand context becomes conjunctive ("and" of terms, NOT ONE of which may be false). I don't really think the "paradox" has much to do with language, and the problem can be expressed in many different ways. However our use of quantifiers can be a problem. There is a tendency to interpret, at first blush, a (partial) formulation like "All the barbers shave every man who does not shave himself." as if it were a unionist collectivist statement that the barbers of Seville (or wherever) have a monopoly. My favorite antimony is the story of the hanged prisoner, and one of the best discussion I've seen of antimony and paradox is Quine's "The Way of Paradox" (if I remember aright) - although I'm not happy with his explanation of the prisoner's dilemma: A judge sentenced a prisoner to be hanged at dawn one day in the coming week, with the stipulation that he would not know on what day it would be until he was fetched for execution, but it would be an unpleasant surprise. He reasoned that it couldn't be the Saturday, as otherwise he'd know by sunrise on the Friday. Thus it must be one of the first six days of the weeks. By successive reasoning backwards through the week he eliminated each day in turn, concluding that the judge's sentence could not be carried out. He was thus most surprised when he was executed on the Tuesday. Have fun! dP P.S. Quine's explanation is that the prisoner ASSUMED implicitly that he could work out what day he would be executed, viz. the falsity of the hypothesis, and thus his deduction of unsatisfiability of the sentence is not a contradiction itself, but a consequence of FALSE or CONTRADICTORY assumptions. I think that was Quine's answer, it is ten years or so ago since I read about it and I've seen various attempts at explanation, none of which I have found completely satisfying. In other words, that's why it's my favourite paradox. -- Dr David M. W. Powers +49-631-13786 (GMT+1) E xtraction Auf der Vogelweide 1 +49-631-205-3210 (FAX) O f SHOE W-6750 KAISERSLAUTERN FRG powers@dfki.uni-kl.de H ierarchical S tructure for Machine Learning of Natural Language and Ontology -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-717. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-718. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 137 Subject: 3.718 Jobs: Typology, morphology, syntax, semantics, SLA Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 10:17:51 PDT From: COMRIE@VM.USC.EDU Subject: Mellon at USC: Typology 2) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 19:31:53 EDT From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell University" Subject: Cornell announces two jobs 3) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 15:21:10 EDT From: Stanley Dubinsky Subject: position in SLA theory -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 10:17:51 PDT From: COMRIE@VM.USC.EDU Subject: Mellon at USC: Typology UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Dept of Linguistics Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Linguistics (Language Universals and Typology) Applications are invited for a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Linguistics, in the area of Language Universals and Typology. This is a non-tenure-track one-year appointment for the academic year 1993-94. Teaching duties include one course in each of two semesters. The PhD must be in hand at the time of appointment and must not have been awarded prior to September 1986. The salary is approximately $28,000 with full faculty fringe benefits. The deadline for applications is December 15, 1992. Send applications (cv, statement of research interests, graduate transcript, and 3 letters of reference) to Chair, Department of Linguistics, GFS-301, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693. USC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Please address inquiries to: Bernard Comrie, comrie@vm.usc.edu or address as above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 19:31:53 EDT From: "Wayles Browne, Cornell University" Subject: Cornell announces two jobs Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. The Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics invites applications for a tenure-track position in morphology, syntax, semantics, or their interfaces. A significant record of research in a language or language area other than English is required. Ph.D. required. To assure careful consideration, candidates should send letter of application, CV, representative publications (no more than three), and should request referees to send letters of recommendation for receipt no later than December 4, 1992, to: J. Whitman, Chair, Search Committee I, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Morrill Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Appointment will begin Fall 1993. It is expected that appointment will be at the rank of assistant professor, but a higher rank for an exceptional candidate might be possible. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply; Cornell is an AA/EO employer. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. The Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics invites applications for a tenure-track position in one of the following areas: sociolinguistics, discourse analysis/pragmatics, or historical linguistics. A significant record of research in a language or language area other than English is required. Ph.D. required. To assure careful consideration, candidates should send letter of application, CV, representative publications (no more than three), and should request referees to send letters of recommendation for receipt no later than December 4, 1992, to: J. Jasanoff, Chair, Search Committee II, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Morrill Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Appointment will begin Fall 1993. It is expected that appointment will be at the rank of assistant professor, but a higher rank for an exceptional candidate might be possible. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply; Cornell is an AA/EO employer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 15:21:10 EDT From: Stanley Dubinsky Subject: position in SLA theory The Linguistics Program at the University of South Carolina seeks an assistant professor (tenure-track) specializing in second language acquisition theory who also has an interest in more applied aspects of the field. Ph.D. in hand required. The ideal candidate will be prepared to teach a full range of courses in second language acquisition/TESL including special topics seminars. Personal research priority in second language acquisition is essential. Areas of secondary teaching and research interest include (in descending order of priority): TEFL methodology, linguistic theory (phonology, syntax, morphology), and first language acquisition. The appointment will be made in the English Department and involves teaching primarily graduate Linguistics Program courses, and some undergraduate Linguistics courses for the English Department. The interdisciplinary Linguistics Program is made up of twelve core faculty from five departments and 17 consulting faculty. Approximately one-half of our 50 students choose second language acquisition/TEFL as their special field. A graduate TEFL Certificate, the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are offered. An undergraduate major is being developed. Send only a cover letter, vita, and names of three references. Deadline: December 1, 1992. Dr. Arthur Mosher, Director, Linguistics Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. AA/EEo. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-718. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-719. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 123 Subject: 3.719 Call for Papers: BLS Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 12:13:27 -0700 From: koenig@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Call for Papers: BLS -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 12:13:27 -0700 From: koenig@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Call for Papers: BLS THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY BLS 19 CALL FOR PAPERS The Berkeley Linguistics Society is pleased to announce its Nineteenth Annual Meeting, to be held February 13-15, 1993. The conference will consist of a General Session and a Parasession. A Special Session on areal topics will be held on February 12, 1993, in conjunction with the larger conference. GENERAL SESSION The main session will cover areas of general linguistic interest. Invited speakers at this session include: VICTORIA FROMKIN, Department of Linguistics, University of California at Los Angeles DONCA STERIADE, Department of Linguistics, University of California at Los Angeles ROGER SHUY, Linguistics Department, Georgetown University PARASESSION: SEMANTIC TYPOLOGY AND SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS Since the last BLS parasession devoted to this issue, semantic typology has been intensely studied from both a formal and cognitive standpoint. Salient among the issues to be discussed in this year's parasession will be: are there semantic universals? What is the nature and extent of semantic cross-linguistic variation? How can one reconcile semantically-based and syntactically-based typologies? Papers from all theoretical perspectives are welcome. Invited speakers include: EMMON BACH, Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst WILLIAM CROFT, Program in Linguistics, University of Michigan ELOISE JELINEK, Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona EDWARD KEENAN, Deparment of Linguistics, University of California at Los Angeles RONALD LANGACKER, Linguistics Department, University of California at San Diego SPECIAL SESSION: SYNTACTIC ISSUES IN NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES Attention Americanists! Do you do syntax in Native American languages? The Special Session invites abstracts for papers concerning syntax or syntax-related topics in the indigenous languages of the Americas. Invited speakers include: MARIANNE MITHUN, Linguistics Program, Unviersity of California at Santa Barbara PAMELA MUNRO, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles DORIS PAYNE, Linguistics Department, University of Oregon Abstracts are invited for all three sessions. We encourage proposals from diverse theoretical frameworks and welcome papers from related disciplines, among them Anthropology, Cognitive Science, Literature, Philosophy, and Psychology. All correspondence should be addressed to: Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2337 Dwinelle hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 Phone: 510-642-5808/510-642-2757; PLEASE NOTE OUR EMAIL ADDRESS: bls@garnet.berkeley.edu Papers delivered at the conference will be published in the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. We will not accept papers which are to be published elsewhere. Speakers will be allowed 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions. To submit an abstract for one of the sessions, send ten copies of an anonymous 500-word proposal (one page, unreduced) to the above address. You may append, if appropriate, a second page containing the data referred to in the abstract and/or bibliographic references for any works cited. We ask that you make your abstract as specific as possible, including a statement of your topic or problem, your approach, and your conclusions. Abstracts should be accompanied by a single 3 x 5 card with: (1) the title of the paper, (2) the session for which the paper is to be considered (General Session, Parasession, or Special Session), (3) if for the General Session, the area in which the abstract is to be judged (Discourse Analysis, Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Philosophy of Linguistics, Phonetics/Phonology, Pragmatic/Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, or Syntax/Semantics), (4) the author's name, (5) the author's affiliation, and (6) the address and phone number, both home and office, at which the author wishes to receive notification in mid- December, 1992, of acceptance or rejection. Authors must not identify themselves on the abstract. Abstracts for the General Session and Parasession must arrive at our office before 5:00, November 18, 1992, those for the Special Session before 5:00, December 1, 1992. Because all preparations for the conference must be made before the end of the fall semester, we are unable to accept late abstracts. (Registration fees: Before February 5th, 1993: $15 for students, $20 for non-students. After February 5th, 1992: $20 for students, $25 for non-students.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-719. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-720. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 192 Subject: 3.720 Reanalyses (Part 1) Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 11:39 PDT From: Pamela Munro Subject: reanalyses 2) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 09:48:34 EST From: JROORYCK@ucs.indiana.edu Subject: reanalyses 3) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 14:59:48 +0000 From: Dyvik@hf.uib.no Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses: An irrelevant apropos 4) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:04:50 -0400 From: rogers@epas.utoronto.ca (Henry Rogers) Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses 5) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 07:45:13 EDT From: John Dingley Subject: Reanalyses 6) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 10:28:24 EDT From: SCHIBERG@MOREKYPR.bitnet Subject: reanalyses 7) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 9:29:18 CDT From: Dennis Baron Subject: reanalysis -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 11:39 PDT From: Pamela Munro Subject: reanalyses (1) Garland Bills, Dennis Preston, Janine Scancarelli, and David Stampe (I hope that's all) responded to my comment about the use of "kindly" for "kind of". The consensus is that this is a widespread southern phenomenon (hypotheses included general southern, South Midland, Apalachian, and Ozark). I should note that I mentioned that I'd heard this primarily (only?) from my Chickasaw and Choctaw consultants for precision, not because I assumed there was any connection between their native language and this development. (2) I'd like to comment on Christine Kamprath's question about Kemo Sabe here, because I think another possibility is of some general interest. (I can't judge the likelihood of the Portuguese suggestion). Tonto may have been a Tonto Apache. These Indians are connected with a group known as the Yavapai Apaches, who in turn are connected with the Yavapais, a tribe of Indians in central Arizona who speak a Yuman language completely (even for Greenberg!) unrelated to Apache (which is Athabascan). Two of my colleages who work on Yavapai, Alan Shaterian and Martha B. Kendall (neither of whom, I believe, gets LINGUIST), came up with the theory that Kemo Sabe derives from Yavapai k-nymsav-e (accent on a; insert as many schwas as you need for pronunciation; subject relativizer k- plus nymsav 'white' plus nominalizing vowel) 'white one', i.e. 'white man'. Kendall wrote a piece about this etymology for Smithsonian magazine maybe 10 years ago. It's a very cute idea, but I do wonder how the Lone Ranger people came up with this word! Pam Munro -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 09:48:34 EST From: JROORYCK@ucs.indiana.edu Subject: reanalyses Seen at the local grocery store: "grown without pestasides" (pesticides ---> pest + aside + s) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 14:59:48 +0000 From: Dyvik@hf.uib.no Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses: An irrelevant apropos De Reuse's example: >In the Latin Pater Noster or Lord's Prayer, he heard: >sicut et nos dimikimus debitoribus nostris. (instead of dimittimus) >[miki mus] was the local Flemish pronunciation for Mickey Mouse. >Such mishearings are, I would think, reinforced by a child's desperate >attempt to make some sense of something quite obscure. made me remember a story which illustrates how the place of an obscure text within a familiar ritual may provide "meaning" enough, without desperate attempts at analysis. A Catholic priest tells me that shortly after the Catholic Church in Norway switched from Latin to Norwegian liturgy, a little boy was overheard in church asking his older sister (English playing the role of Norwegian here): - What does 'and with Thy spirit' really mean? The sister replied promptly: - Don't you understand that, stupid? It means 'et cum spiritu tuo'! Helge Dyvik -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:04:50 -0400 From: rogers@epas.utoronto.ca (Henry Rogers) Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses Planter's warts for plantar warts seems to have prevailed completely. I have never heard anyone other than a medical person or a linguist say plantar warts, and then they have usually restressed the vowel of the second syllable from schwa to /a/. -- Henry Rogers rogers@epas.utoronto.ca Department of Linguistics University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1 vox: (416)-978-1769 Canada fax: (416)-978-8821 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 07:45:13 EDT From: John Dingley Subject: Reanalyses A habit I have never really been able to break, even when on my best linguistic behaviour, is to say "a MIND of information" for "a MINE of information". Barbarous as that might be, surely information has more to do with the MIND than with a bloody MINE anyway! Yours philistinely, John Dingley -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 10:28:24 EDT From: SCHIBERG@MOREKYPR.bitnet Subject: reanalyses At the risk of beating a dead horse... When I was in college I was taking a Greek mythology and a Greek civ. class in addition to a biology class. I remember reading my biology textbook one day and coming upon the word "herbicides." However, I was reading it directly after one fo my Greek classes and I read the word as "her-BI-ci-des" (rhymes with Euripides figure out who this Herbicides was! And why was he in my bio book? I had a good laugh when I "camme to." Susan Scheiberg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 9:29:18 CDT From: Dennis Baron Subject: reanalysis Herb Stahlke's mention of _viaduct_ brings to mind the classic Groucho shtick, "Why a duck?" It's a doggy-dog world seems to have become a staple; I trace it back to Richard Lederer's original piece in _Verbatim_, "A History of the World According to Student Bloopers." Two common reanlyses are _wreck havoc_ from _wreak havoc_, and _wind one's way_ from _wend ...._ I seem to forget a lot, and one day my 9 year old daughter said to me, "Daddy, I think you've got Oldtimer's Disease." And I know quite a few children who reanalyzed the _you_ in certain phrases: both our younger kids in response to "Do you want me to carry you?" would say, "Carry you, Mommy." And in response to "I'm going to put you to bed now". "No, Daddy putyou." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-720. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-721. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 214 Subject: 3.721 Reanalyses (Part 2) Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:13 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Reanalyses 2) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:15:08 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: RE: 3.714 Reanalyses 3) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 13:34:19 -0700 From: wilcox@triton.unm.edu Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses 4) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 15:56:24 EST From: macaulay@j.cc.purdue.edu (Monica Macaulay) Subject: reanalyses 5) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 17:16:33 EST From: mark Subject: Reanalyses 6) Date: 21 September 1992, 17:12:56 CST From: Margaret.E.Winters.GA3704.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: iMput 7) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 19:33:23 CDT From: Michael Kac Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses 8) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 19:46:25 CDT From: Jill Brody Subject: reanalyses -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:13 EST From: Herb Stahlke <00HFSTAHLKE@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU> Subject: Reanalyses Looking back on my own children's language, I recall two forms that surprised my when they uttered them and even more when I heard them from their playmates. Child #1 (teary-eyed): "He/She beamed me!" Meaning: He/She threw a (ball, other missile) at me and hit me. My guess: analogy to "to bean," meaning to hit in the head with thrown missile, but influenced by Star Trek. Child #2 (indignant): "But I did it on accident!" My guess: replacing "by accident" by analogy to "on purpose" Herb Stahlke Ball State University -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 11:15:08 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: RE: 3.714 Reanalyses Under the category of "reanalyses I have always been ashamed of" and "can you top this?" I wonder how many of us avid readers thought until such and such an age that: 1) ['pen:lop] was one name for a certain lady in Greek myth and that [p:'nel:piy] was another name? 2) or that 'superfluous' was pronounced ['soop;r-'floow:s? Finally, I am from Dayton Ohio [deyt:n:hay:] amd thought until age 12 that 'date 'n' nut cake' was 'nut cake' which had originated in [deyt:n]! ====================================================================== Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off: Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874 Speech Communication Department hm: California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872 SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663 Northridge, CA 91330 Internet: AHARRIS@VAX.CSUN.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 13:34:19 -0700 From: wilcox@triton.unm.edu Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses >I have a hard time swallowing "elemental B", by the way. By the time >a child had any notion what "elemental" meant, such that it >distinguished one kind of B from another, he or she would also have >discovered that that stretch of the "abc jingle" was more letters of >the alphabet. I suspected someone might pick up on this. I was not trying to say that at the time I misheard the jingle I knew what "elemental" was, or even thought that the phrase was "_elemental_ B". I *did* hear a word for "LMNO" and I *did* think it was some type of modifier to "B" (P), to distinguish it from the regular B. I had no idea what that adjective was or what it meant. Geez, we had a "double U" in the alphabet, why not an "elamenl B"? Actually, trying now to dredge up 40 year-old memories, I'm not sure whether I thought it was "ellamenl" (which was why I chose "elemental") or "elaminnow." Sorry about the confusion. Sherman Wilcox Dept. of Linguistics University of New Mexico -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 15:56:24 EST From: macaulay@j.cc.purdue.edu (Monica Macaulay) Subject: reanalyses Okay, I can't resist jumping on the reanalysis bandwagon. Someone mentioned "tenure tract" -- surely others of you have, like me, had relatives express surprise that the tenure decision is usually made in the 6th or 7th year of one's career, instead of the tenth ("ten- year," of course). Monica Macaulay -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 17:16:33 EST From: mark Subject: Reanalyses I heard this in a meeting today, and I've heard it many times before: /p@.r'en.8@.si:/ for the singular of "parentheses" (@ = schwa, 8 = theta). Mark A. Mandel Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: 21 September 1992, 17:12:56 CST From: Margaret.E.Winters.GA3704.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: iMput I have no problem imagining that `imput' could be the correct spelling. After all, English is full of words like `import' `implant', with the preposition IN, and `imbalance', `impossible' for the negative IN. I suspect that the former group is moderately transparent to thoughtful native speakers - therefore why not `imput'? I tried it for weeks on the computer, but my program can't or won't do assimilations on the command line. One of my favorite reanalyses, by the way, is the ad for a Datsun in the pet section of our local paper. Margaret -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 19:33:23 CDT From: Michael Kac Subject: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses God, this could go on forever! The posting by Willem De Reuse about his father's attempts to make sense as a child of liturgical Latin reminded me of two cases in English -- apocryphal in that I can't say I heard them or said them myself, but with a ring of authenticity: Lead us not into Penn Station but deliver us from evil; and Surely Good Mrs. Murphy will follow me all the days of my life. And one true example of a reanalyzed form whose source is now completely lowst (I mean low ... lost!) namely *spitting image* from *spit and image*, *spit* being a now obsolete word meaning 'one who resembles another' (as in 'He's the spit of his father'.) Confession time: I learned this from reading William Safire. Please don't hold it against me. Michael Kac -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 19:46:25 CDT From: Jill Brody Subject: reanalyses I've been holding back but can no longer resist, since reanalyses fly through my house, mostly from my 8-year-old twins. Recently, we have movies being "read at" PG. Also, as sometime Spanish speakers who are currently in the mode of forgetting, they have reanalyzed "gracias a dios" as "thank you and good-bye." Jill Brody gajill@lsuvm -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-721. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-722. Wed 23 Sep 1992. Lines: 173 Subject: 3.722 Reanalyses: Last Posting Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 21 Sep 1992 19:20:31 EDT From: Robert Beard Subject: Reanalysis 2) Date: 22 Sep 1992 17:13:18 -0600 (CST) From: Fran Karttunen Subject: More reanalyses 3) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 01:20 MET From: WERTH@alf.let.uva.nl Subject: RE: 3.703 Reanalyses 4) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 16:34:59 MDT From: FD00000 Subject: 3.703 Reanalyses 5) Date: 23 Sep 1992 22:04:48 CDT From: Subject: A Russian reanalysis 6) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 10:07:20 +1200 From: Laurie.BAUER@vuw.ac.nz Subject: reanalyses -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 21 Sep 1992 19:20:31 EDT From: Robert Beard Subject: Reanalysis One of the best sources for reanalysis is undergraduate compositions. My favorite of all times--from that source or any other--came from a colleague in English with whom I swap: "a devil make hair attitude". (I saw it with my own eyes.) --RBeard Robert Beard, rbeard@bucknell.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: 22 Sep 1992 17:13:18 -0600 (CST) From: Fran Karttunen Subject: More reanalyses Young children can do pretty sophisticated things. I wouldn't doubt the "elemental B" example. In 1974 there were two big white Samoyed dogs that kept showing up at LSA institute picnics. One was Larry Horn's dog Itee. The children took to calling the other one "Itee sub-two." My five-year-old explained to us that they called him that because he was a "substitute Itee." I also had a student turn in an essay containing the phrase "doggie-dog." It must be widespread among undergrads. Fran Karttunen -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 01:20 MET From: WERTH@alf.let.uva.nl Subject: RE: 3.703 Reanalyses I can't resist adding a few more reanalyses to the list, inspired by Dennis Barron's contribution and several others. One of my daughters said pisghetti too, but her best friend said sghabetti - funnily enough, they understood each other perfectly! My six-year old son still says 'attapement' (for Flemish 'appartement' /a'part*'ment/, where * = schwa) - he seems to "lose" the /r/ in the process. Following Claudia Brugman's contribution, there's the story of the children burying their pet canary (yes, it WAS dead) with these words: 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and into the hole 'e goes' (suiting the action to the words). I myself saw a card in a newsagent's window advertising 'an ultra violent ray lamp' - not giving a reason for selling, however! This brings me to a semi-serious point: this type of phenomenon is traditionally called a 'malapropism' (after, I think, Sheridan's Mrs. Malaprop; Fielding has a similar character called Mrs. Slipslop); they're also not unlike what philologists called 'folk- etymology'. The print-based examples quoted by Michael Kac are traditionally called 'spelling pronunciations' - people like A.C.Baugh and Henry Wild give examples like waistcoat (traditionally in Britain pronounced /weskit/) and forehead (traditionally /forid/), but now commonly pronounced as they're spelt. I'd like to share Mrs. Slack with everybody - she was a real, live Mrs. Malaprop from Leytonstone, London, employed by my family as a home help while I was still in my teens (I did a dissertation on East London dialect for my first degree at Leeds, using her as my main informant). Mrs. Slack genuinely said things like 'lemon verandah pie' (for 'lemon meringue pie') and 'airgun pelmets' for airgun pellets'. She was quite proud of the fact that I was at the Universary, but didn't want everybody to know that she was having trouble with her wound (she meant womb, in fact). Mrs. Slack was not only linguistically inept - she also broke a lot of things, but - honest to a fault - would leave the little pile of fragments with a note usually scribbled on a cigarette packet (which she called a 'fag-packet'), saying simply "I done it. M. Slack". (Her first name was 'May', incidentally - I couldn't believe it either!). This became proverbial in our family, and when the manager of my brother's rock group managed to secure a lucrative tour for them in the States, he simply cabled back "We done it. M.Slack". This anecdote has nothing to do with reanalysis, but it's too good not to tell! Paul Werth -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 16:34:59 MDT From: FD00000 Subject: 3.703 Reanalyses If people are still collecting reanalyses, here's one more. When I was a little boy and had to memorize the Lord's Prayer, the opening line: Our Father, who art in heaven, ... became: Our Father, who aren't in heaven,... This made perfect sense to me, because my father was alive, so of course he wasn't in heaven. It seemed strange to me that they should say "aren't" instead of "isn't", but that was better than words like "hallowed", which I didn't understand at all. -Grant Goodall UT El Paso -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: 23 Sep 1992 22:04:48 CDT From: Subject: A Russian reanalysis Russians call the honey agaric (a mushroom) _op"enok_, i.e., the 'on' (o-) 'the trunk' (-pen-) '-er' (-ok), originally because it grew on tree trunks, and its plural, for many speakers, is _op"enki_. But some speakers have reanalyzed it as _op-"enok, using the young-of-species suffix (as in ut"enok 'duckling'), as shown by the fact that they pluralize it as _opjata_ (same as _utjata_). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 10:07:20 +1200 From: Laurie.BAUER@vuw.ac.nz Subject: reanalyses Can I add some reanalyses for general enjoyment. There is _spoonfed_ which is clearly the past tense of the verb to spoonf. Every time I see _barroom_ I read it on analogy with _varroom_ instead of as a compound. As a child I always sang 'We three kings of glory and tar'. Computer hyphenation programs lead to various reanalyses at line breaks. Several times recently I have stumbled over _read-justment_, and have even found _we-ren't_. Where does the line go between a reanalysis and a folk etymology? Or are they the same thing on different scales? _To do one's upmost_ is a common reanalysis which I think of as folk etymology. Laurie Bauer BauerL@matai.vuw.ac.nz Wellington, New Zealand -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-722. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-723. Thu 24 Sep 1992. Lines: 96 Subject: 3.723 Queries: Syllabry, Lenneberg, Phonetics Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 18:39:29 CDT From: Keri Rene Riener Subject: syllabary 2) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 13:14:26 EDT From: rapaport@cs.Buffalo.EDU (William J. Rapaport) Subject: Lenneberg reference still needed 3) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 13:40:42 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: Experimental Phonetics vs. "Ear" Phonetics -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 18:39:29 CDT From: Keri Rene Riener Subject: syllabary In a recent issue of _Language and Speech_ [1991, 34(2), 109-143], Chalikia and Warren report that when listeners are presented with recycling sequences of brief steady-state vowels they report hearing verbal forms. It is further suggested that "...the verbal forms heard not only followed the phonotactic rules of English, but also corresponded to syllables actually found in English" (p. 109). Is anyone aware of an English syllabary (hardbound or computer based),i.e. a list of syllables actually found in the English language? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Please send information directly to: keri@csd4.csd.uwm.edu Thanks, Keri Riener -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 13:14:26 EDT From: rapaport@cs.Buffalo.EDU (William J. Rapaport) Subject: Lenneberg reference still needed [Back in June, I submitted the following query, but got no replies; perhaps people were on vacation. I'd like to try again.] I have a reference to an article by Lenneberg describing an experiment in which high school students were given Sarah the chimp's symbols to manipulate: E. Lenneberg, "Neuropsychological Comparison between Man, Chimpanzee, and Monkey," Neuropsychologia 13 (1975) 125. Yet my library tells me that neither author nor title are in the index to Vol. 13. Can someone please give me a correct reference? Thanks. William J. Rapaport Associate Professor of Computer Science and Center for Cognitive Science Dept. of Computer Science||internet: rapaport@cs.buffalo.edu SUNY Buffalo ||bitnet: rapaport@sunybcs.bitnet Buffalo, NY 14260 ||uucp: {rutgers,uunet}!cs.buffalo.edu!rapaport (716) 636-3193, 3180 ||fax: (716) 636-3464 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 13:40:42 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: Experimental Phonetics vs. "Ear" Phonetics There are many examples, I believe, where what even the best "ear" phoneticians systematically mishear what is actually uttered. An example might be the fricative pronunciations of English /k/ and /g/ in intervocalic position. I would be interested in any references that people to have to published work on this subject (since I have few if any). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-723. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-724. Fri 25 Sep 1992. Lines: 417 Subject: 3.724 Summary: *dog* as sexist language Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 22 Sep 1992 10:22:42 -0600 (MDT) From: REBWHLR@CC.USU.EDU Subject: *dog* as sexist language -- SUMMARY POSTING -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 22 Sep 1992 10:22:42 -0600 (MDT) From: REBWHLR@CC.USU.EDU Subject: *dog* as sexist language -- SUMMARY POSTING Everyone who responded, thank you!!! Your comments were most informative and useful. I*ve attempted to render their considerable range in my summary. Very sorry about the delay in getting this summary posting out but here *tis. Any inaccuracies are surely of my own doing. This is a long email -- you might want to print it out. THE INITIAL QUERY In mid-summer, I posted a query to LINGUIST net regarding a billboard in Salt Lake City, Utah. The billboard, erected by Gus Paolos Chevrolet, depicted a Corvette and read as follows: **If your date*s a dog, get a vet** In attempt to scope out whether this use of *dog* was indeed as sexist as I perceived it to be, I queried the LINGUIST net for whether the word *dog* when used with the meaning *unattractive human* could be used equally either of males and females or whether it was specified for one or the other gender. The following summarizes the results of my query. ESTABLISHED USAGE: DOG = UNATTRACTIVE FEMALE Following Bruce Nevin*s lead, I telephoned Merriam Webster Dictionary and spoke with the Senior Editor, Steve Perrault. He asserted as follows: Merriam Webster -- Senior Editor **I don*t find any case [after consulting over 100 citations] where *dog* meaning unattractive person clearly refers to a man. When it is referring to an unnattractive person, it is almost invariably a woman. It is used of men as an insulting term, not to imply that they are unattractive, but to imply they are losers, lazy or unworthy in some way. *Dog* is a term of abuse for a person but when it is used to mean unattractive -- based on the evidence I have examined -- it is used specifically of women.** [Steve Perrault, Senior Editor, Merriam Webster] Movies, Books, Personal Anecdotes That *dog* meaning *unattractive* is coded specifically as *unattractive woman or girl* was manifest in a number of different discourse arenas -- movies, books, and personal stories. Peggy Maceachern put me onto a recent movie, **Dogfight** with River Phoenix. The video jacket tells us that **the rules of the dogfight were simple: Everyone puts in 50 bucks and the guy with the ugliest *date* wins**. Equivalently, it later asserts that **the guy who finds the most unattractive date wins**. Introducing the characters, the video blurb identifies **Lili Taylor [as] Rose, an *ugly duckling.** The *dogs* here were exclusively female. In Ghostbusters, Bill Murray refers to the levitating Segourney Weaver (who is a dog of hell), **Ok. sheUs a dog.** A philosopher friend, Chuck Johnson, told me of **The Long Grey Line**, a book depicting life at West Point, in which the same sort of contest transpired as in **Dogfight**. The cadets held a contest such that the winner was the cadet with the ugliest date -- the dates were all female. Through personal knowledge, Christine Kamprath confirms this kind of behavior as follows: **At West Point Military Academy, where I lived for four years, they had weekly dances. For the first two years I was there, there were no female cadets. But there was a women's college just outside the academy gates, and the cadets would get dates with those women and take them to the dances. The dances were referred to as "walking my dog around the floor"; I believe this was also extended to any date where walking with a woman from that college was involved, e.g., what did you do last night? walked the dog.** A similar function was to be found at the University of Massachusetts in the mid-60*s. David Johns comments that in the 50s and 60s, *dog* **without any context meant "ugly girl".** He recalled as follows: **In fact, when I was at the University of Massachusetts in '64-'66 a fraternity was closed down for having a "dog show" -- a party where all the brothers brought ugly girls.** Though his intuition was that he wouldn*t have been surprised to have heard *dog* used of unattractive men. REPORTS ON IDIOLECTS That *dog* means unattractive girl or woman was asserted by a good number of folk (Klavans, Hearst, La Rocco, Maceachern, Kac, Ervin Tripp, Lojbab, Barratt, Wachal, Metzler, Carrozza, Brugman, Sutton, Lessard, Picone, and Brice) in terms such as the following: **I have NEVER heard *dog applied to a man by someone under the age of 50 or so. It invariably refers to a physically unattractive woman.** **I don*t remember ever hearingh it used to refer to a man.** **In my lexicon, *dog* in this sense is indeed gender-biased. It means *unattractive female*, not *unattractive person.** **I can*t think of a usage of *dog* meaning unattractive human.** **dog, in this instance is intended to refer specifically to women.** **I*d have a hard time constring the ad you describe as anything but sexist.** **Through many years as an observer of language, a student of philology, and an editor, I have never heard the word *dog* used in the way you mention to refer to a man. I am certain of this...** **As a speaker, I wouldn*t accept *dog* as referring to a man** **I recently wrote a paper based on the slang used here at UCB and *dog* definitely refers to woen, not men** Additionally, two pieces of folkspeech from the U. C. Berkeley Folklore Archive (c/o Department of Anthropology, Berkeley, California 94720) corroborate, defining *dog* as follows: **Dog* is used to describe an ugly girl.** -- 1974. **A *dog* is one who is ugly, unfashionable ... (I expected her to be real attractive; she was a real dog.** -- 1967. INFORMAL SURVEY -- 13 SPEAKERS Following the suggestion of Linda Coleman, I did a very informal survey of people in a grocery store in Park City, Utah, just up the road from Salt Lake City. I told them I was a linguist doing research on how people interpret language utterances and asked them if I could get their interpretation of a billboard in Salt Lake. I described the billboard -- that it was erected by Gus Paolo Chevrolet, that it pictured a Corvette and that above the Corvette it read, **If your date*s a dog, get a vet.** I then asked each person what it was talking about, what it meant. I spoke with 13 people. Six men, in their 30s and 40s. 5 women in their 30s and two girls, aged 13 and 15. Two of the men standing together, laughed and replied, **It means if you own a nice vehicle you won*t have a dog sitting next to you.** I asked them what or who the dog was. One replied, **what do you mean what*s the dog? It*s obvious.** What is it, a golden retriever, I asked? **Of course not. It*s a woman.** The clear concensus (4 adult women, 4 adult men), was that the billboard was **sexist and degrading to women.** **The date is a woman, definately.** One woman replied, **if your chic ain*t kool, get a Corvette**. A man commented, **If you wanted a more attractive date, drive a Vet** and he amplified that the date is typically female. One woman rather perperplexingly interpreted the billboard to mean *if you have an old car take it to get fixed*. Two of the men I approached (30s & 40s) although initially responsive as I described myself as a linguist investigating how people understand certain language utterances, became unwilling to continue when they heard the substance of my inquiry. One man refused to comment and another said **I won*t get involved with this. It sounds like an activist thing. You are VERY aggressive.** And off he strode. Thus, out of of 11 adults, 2 men refused to respond. Out of the 9 responding, a near totality, 4 women and 4 men, assessed **dog** as referring exclusively to women. One woman proffered an interpretation of *date* as a broken down car. Interestingly, the two teenaged girls I sampled interpreted the date as **a guy**, suggesting that young females can interpret **dog** gender neutrally, unlike older women and men. GENERATIONAL DISTINCTION IN USAGE The same type of usage held among junior high and high school students in Chicago in the 70s. Thus, Laurel Smith Stvan reports, **When I was in junior high and high school (in the Chicago suburbs in the 70s), dog, fox, and babe were all terms used to categorize people by their looks (and therfore sex appeal) and they were used by both sexes for members of the opposite sex. In particular, they would be used in the following types of expressions: What a fox! He's such a dog. I probably heard these types of phrase slightly more from male students than from female students, but the females who used then were by no means proponents of unbiased language, they were just using the current slang.** The generational distinction suggested by the informal survey and the 70*s Chicago High school data is echoed currently in the patterns of teenaged speech in Southern Ontario English. Greg Lessard reports the following usage among his 15 year old daughter and her friends: **My 15 year old daughter, who tells me that among her friends _dog_ is used by females to describe unattractive males, when speaking to other females or to other males, and by males to describe females, when speaking to other males or to females, but that it is NOT used by males to describe not attractive males when speaking to females, or by females to describe not attractive females when speaking to males.** So... just reflect my own understanding of Lessard*s interesting description, a speaker can slander the opposite sex when speaking to either a same or different gender hearer. But a speaker will not slander a same sex person when speaking to a member of the opposite gender. The gender polarity here recalls another respondent observation -- any assertion that *dog* in the ad is used exclusively of women rests upon an unfortunate **heterosexual default assumption**. USAGE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Data from University studies confirms both the established usage [i.e. *dog* **when used to mean unattractive... is used specifically of women (Steve Perrault, Merriam Webster)], and what we may call the gender-equity usage [i.e. *dog* used to mean either unattractive female or male] which appears to be found among younger users (Lessard; Wheeler -- the informal supermarket survey). Colleen Brice conducted a study of the use of animal metaphors as used by Purdue undergraduates. The questionnaire she diseminated to 75 female and 75 male students was concerned with animal metaphors of the type 'X is a Y'--it asked informants to answer several about 24 animal names (one of which, of course, was 'dog'). In relevant part, she found that **because a majority of the males use 'dog' to refer exclusively to females, and a majority said it is used to mean 'ugly', it seems safe to say that most males perceive 'dog' as a pejorative term used primarily for females.** With control for polysemy, it would be possible to determine whether the males outside the majority use *dog* to mean, more generally, unattractive human. [Stephen Spackman*s experience suggests that this general meaning is indeed in use: **On reflection I've definitely heard the word "dog" used for an ugly person of the gender of preference in three of the four cases: men of women, women of men and women of women (my sample size is too small for the MM case...)**.] Further, Brice found that men and women use *dog* differently: **46% of the informants (females and males combined) said they use 'dog' to refer to both sexes, and 38.7% said they use 'dog' to refer to females only. A mere 4% said they use it for males only.** **However, there is a significant difference in female and male informants' asignment of referent to 'dog'. 61.3% of the female informants said they use 'dog' for both sexes--this percentage is double the percentage of males who use 'dog' for both sexes (30.7%). On the other hand, 57.3% of the males who participated in the survey claimed they use 'dog' to refer to females. Only 20% of the female informants said they use 'dog' for females only. So, it seems 'dog' is used differently by males and females.** While these findings speak to the use of the lexeme, *dog*, rather than the use of the lexeme IN A GIVEN SENSE, they nonetheless suggest differential use between men and women. THE VARIOUS READINGS OF *DOG* (summary of dictionary entries and respondent suggestions -- strictly pre- theoretic) As brought out in Brice*s study as well as in many responses, *dog* is clearly polysemous. The range of possible meanings proffered is suggested by a summary of the various dictionary treatment respondents wrote about. Thus, *dog* is defined variously as follows: Hugh Rawson. 'Wicked Words' . 1. a failure of any sort ('that movie was a dog'). 2. an ugly person, often a woman. (note that the term 'mutt' is referenced here. the definition listed there is 'a woman, especially a homely one). [***Joshua Simons***] Webster's 9th New Collegiate, : 2a: a worthless person b: FELLOW, CHAP 9: one inferior of its kind: as a: an investment (as a stock or bond) not worth its price b: a slow-moving or undesirable piece of merchandise 10: an unattractive girl or woman Bruce Nevin observes and interestingly comments as follows: "10 above turns up as 10g in W3I, marked as slang, with the additional "sometimes: prostitute." ... It also seems clear that sense 10 devloped from sense 9, and it may be strongly argued that sense 10 is jargon of a male-dominated mercantile subculture.** American Heritage, 2nd college ed: An uninteresting, unattractive, or unresponsive person. A contemptible wretched fellow. Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary: Contemptible fellow. Extremely ugly woman. [***Peggy Maceachern***] Wentworth and Flexner 11. A disreputable or untrustworthy man, especially in sexual or social matters; a cad. 12. An ugly, unrefined, or sexually disreputable girl or woman; a boring girl or young woman who does not have the compensation of beauty. 6. Something inferior; something disliked or lacking in appeal....... [***J.A. Given***] See also, Bolinger, Dwight. LANGUAGE THE LOADED WEAPON (see chapter on sexism) Robert L. Chapman, NEW DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG, Harper & Row, 1986 Pam Munro, Slang U [***Sutton***] Richard A. Spears, SLANG AND EUPHEMISM, Jonathan David, 1981. Hugh Rawson, WICKED WORDS, Crown, 1989. [***Bob Wachal***] Wiese 1983. Anaphora by pronoun. LINGUISTICS 21: 392. The following quickly summarizes the dictionary definitions as well as those suggested by respondents: 1. Of non-humans: Failure of any sort, an inferior one of its kind, something undesirable or lacking in appeal contemptable (used of cars, computers, software, etc) 2. Of human males: (a) a disreputable wretched man esp. one who is lazy, a loser, or unworthy. (b) of the behavior of abusive/drunken/cheating men (That just be the dog in him. Alabama. Mike Picone] (c) also *dirty dog*, *handsome dog* , *sly dog* = rogue 3. Of human females: An unattractive girl or woman. an ugly, unrefined or socially disreputable girl or woman; a boring girl or young woman who does not have the compensation of beauty. 4. Of humans, general: (a) An ugly person of the gender of preference (most clearly attested among teenagers and people in their early 20s) (b) An ugly person (regardless of gender of prefrence). Note: reading 4 is in less frequent usage than reading 3. ********************************* Post-script. Gus Paolos Chevrolet took the offending billboard down and erected the another in its place: Driving a shiny Corvette is an *obviously female* poodle with her passenger, an *obviously male* bull-dog. The slogan reads **Every dog has its day**. Thanks again for all the responses! ****************************** Rebecca S. Wheeler Logan, Utah rebwhlr@cc.usu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-724. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-725. Sat 26 Sep 1992. Lines: 65 Subject: 3.725 Workshop: Language Classification & Reconstruction Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 07:08:58 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Workshop on Language Classification and Reconstruction, Nov. 6-7. -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 07:08:58 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Workshop on Language Classification and Reconstruction, Nov. 6-7. WORKSHOP ON METHODS OF LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION AND RECONSTRUCTION ANN ARBOR, NOV. 6-7, 1992 The purpose of this workshop is to try to settle some of the fundamental issues that have arisen over the last 30 or so years in the work on language classification and the reconstruction of extinct languages (incl. the reconstruction of unattested features of partially attested languages, such as the phonology of languages written hieroglyphically). The workshop will take the form of extended discussions involving specialists in the different areas, each discussion to be started off by a rapporteur. Confirmed participants include: Eric P. Hamp (Chicago) Sergei Starostin (Russian Academy of Sciences) Brian Joseph (Ohio State University) Raimo Anttila (UCLA) Sheila Embleton (Toronto) Joe Salmons (Purdue) Anthony Aristar (Texas A & M) Thomas Toon (Michigan) William Baxter (Michigan) Madhav Deshpande (Michigan) Gernot Windfuhr (Michigan) Vitaly Shevoroshkin (Michigan) Martha Ratliff (Wayne State) Alexis Manaster Ramer (Wayne State) Sponsored by the University of Michigan Linguistics Program. Organizing Committee: William Baxter, Alexis Manaster Ramer, Martha Ratliff Contact: Alexis Manaster Ramer (amr@mts.cc.wayne.edu, 1-313-577-2477, Computer Sc. Dept., Wayne State U., Detroit, MI 48202, USA) ANYONE INTERSTED IN PARTICIPATING SHOULD LET ME KNOW ASAP. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-725. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-726. Sat 26 Sep 1992. Lines: 79 Subject: 3.726 Queries: Acquisition; French Dictionary Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1992 20:19:26 -0700 (PDT) From: John Varden Subject: phoneme inventory acquisition 2) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 10:39 FST From: "Marc TORZYNSKI" Subject: Request for french dictionary file -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1992 20:19:26 -0700 (PDT) From: John Varden Subject: phoneme inventory acquisition I'm wondering if any other parents/caregivers/siblings/etc. out there have witnessed an inventory acquisition sequence like my daughter's - specifically, laryngeal fricatives as (one of) the first segment(s) actively produced by a baby. From the age of about 3-4 months to 5 months, she spent what seemed like way too much time playing with her larynx as an active articulator, even though she was being exposed to only Japanese (which has no laryngeal or heavily laryngealized segments) and the fact that mother and father were constantly bombarding her with 'mama's and 'papa's. Her physical exams ruled out congenital defect. I have heard of one other child who produced any quantity of laryngeal segments at such an early age - a child of Semitic language-speaking parents who participated in a study with Dr. Carol Stoel-Gammon here at the UW (anecdote by Stoel-Gammon in a UW colloquium; results of the study reported in Stemberger & Stoel-Gammon 1991). Has anyone else out there an experience like this? If so, could you also tell me what languages the child was being exposed to? Incidentally, my daughter hasn't produced a laryngeal segment in I don't know how long - she has a very normal Japanese phonology that some English is just starting to break through now that I've been using only English with her (she's just turning 2). reference: Stemberger, Joseph & Carol Stoel-Gammon (1991) "The underspecification of coronals: Evidence from language acquisition and performance error". In Catherine Paradis & Jean-Francois Prunett (eds.) _The Special Status of Coronals: Internal and External Evidence_. New York: Academic Press. Kevin Varden, University of Washington varden@u.washington.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 10:39 FST From: "Marc TORZYNSKI" Subject: Request for french dictionary file I am looking for a french dictionary in form of an ASCII file. Please answer to my personal E-mail below (I'm not registrated in this list). Many thanks M.T ------------------- Marc Torzynski ENSPS E-mail U97102@FRCCSC21 7, rue de l'Universite Tel +33 88.35.51.50 67000 Strasbourg Fax +33 88.35.31.76 FRANCE Telex ULP 870 260 F -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-726. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-727. Sat 26 Sep 1992. Lines: 63 Subject: 3.727 Queries: G/HPSG; Citation Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 23 September 1992, 21:42:00 CST From: GA3662@SIUCVMB Subject: Toy G/HPSG Programs 2) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 16:11:19 EDT From: CWTJ@CORNELLA.bitnet Subject: Functional Categories citation -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 23 September 1992, 21:42:00 CST From: GA3662@SIUCVMB Subject: Toy G/HPSG Programs I know that a while ago someone wrote to ask about functioning G/HPSG programs that were easily available. I have a somewhat different question (and besides I'm not sure I can face going back through the archives). Is there a toy version of one of these models that illustrates some of the major features visually. I am currently teaching out of the Borsley text, but it would be nice to have something that showed features percolating up and down trees and checking on each others' presence etc. It doesn't have to be all-inclusive or large, just visual. I briefly played with my spreadsheet program and only succeeded in discovering I don't know enough about logical functions in Quattro Pro. Will post results if I get any. Many thanks, Geoff Nathan Southern Illinois University at Carbondale -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 92 16:11:19 EDT From: CWTJ@CORNELLA.bitnet Subject: Functional Categories citation Does anyone know the full citation for C. Lefebvre et al. _Functional Categorie s_? I need to cite a paper that appears there. Send messages directly to me. cwtj@cornella.bitnet. Jacqueline -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-727. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-728. Mon 28 Sep 1992. Lines: 95 Subject: 3.728 Job Postings Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 11:16:27 EDT From: Peter Lasersohn Subject: opening at univ. of rochester 2) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 12:53:38 EDT From: waoneil@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Linguistics-philosophy job at MIT 3) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 18:41 EDT From: Cathy Ball Subject: Semantics Position at Georgetown -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 11:16:27 EDT From: Peter Lasersohn Subject: opening at univ. of rochester THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS The Linguistics Program at the University of Rochester has an opening in theoretical linguistics. Rank open. Strongest needs are for someone with specialization in ASL linguistics, phonology, morphology, and/or syntax. Most favored will be candidates with a strong publication record and demonstrated excellence in both undergraduate and graduate teaching, and an ability to contribute to the university's cognitive science community. For fullest consideration, applications should arrive by November 16. EOE/AA. Send letter of application, vita, and names of at least three references to: Chair, Linguistics Search Committee Linguistics Program 392 Dewey Hall University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627-0082 USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 12:53:38 EDT From: waoneil@Athena.MIT.EDU Subject: Linguistics-philosophy job at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA. Joint linguistics-philosophy position. Rank and salary open. Areas of specialization: natural language semantics, philosophy of language. Candidates should have a strong background in both philosophy and linguistics, and be capable of graduate supervision in both fields. Applicants should send complete dossier including three letters of reference and sample of work by December 1, 1992 to Wayne O'Neil, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Room 20D-213, MIT, Cambridge MA 02139 (telephone 617-253-4141). *MIT is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer* -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 18:41 EDT From: Cathy Ball Subject: Semantics Position at Georgetown The Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University invites applications for a tenure-track position in linguistics, at the assistant professor level, beginning Fall 1993. Applicants should have a PhD in Linguistics and a record of research in formal semantics. A demonstrated ability to teach undergraduate and graduate linguistics courses is required. Related research interests in syntax, pragmatics, historical or computational linguistics are desirable; applicants with breadth and versatility will be preferred. Send letter of application, CV, representative publications, and names and addresses of three references to: Search Committee, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1068. Deadline for full consideration of applications is November 15, 1992. Georgetown is an AA/EO employer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-728. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-729. Mon 28 Sep 1992. Lines: 154 Subject: 3.729 Barber Paradox Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:05:57 METDST From: J.T. de Jong Subject: barber 2) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:36:28 BST From: Alex Monaghan Subject: Re: 3.717 The Barber Paradox (Part 2) 3) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:54:00 EDT From: an@verbum.com Subject: RE: More of the barber of Seville 4) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 19:23:51 +0200 From: Lars Ahrenberg Subject: Re: 3.716 The Barber Paradox -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:05:57 METDST From: J.T. de Jong Subject: barber What a fuss about barbers Spanish towns! It does not seem to be a problem to me especially because in SPANISH there are two verbs: afeitar (to shave someone) and afeitarse (to shave oneself). In this so-called paradox there are simply two different verbs: S[i]VO[j] and S[i]VO[i]. With two verbs there is no paradox. _________________________________________________________ Jelly Julia de Jong, Dept. of General Linguistics, University of Groningen Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26 E-mail: julia@let.rug.nl 9712 EK Groningen The Netherlands -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:36:28 BST From: Alex Monaghan Subject: Re: 3.717 The Barber Paradox (Part 2) i must confess to being a little surprised at the fuss about this one. imagine a mediaeval sevilla where anti-semitic paranoia has reached such a peak that beards (the mark of a jew or arab) are to be outlawed. the church (or some other suitable tyrant) issues the following edict: EVERY MAN WHO DOES NOT SHAVE HIMSELF WILL BE SHAVED BY THE BARBER-GENERAL OF THE INQUISITION. (presumably with red-hot needles or the like ...) as far as i can see, this gets rid of all the beards but has no other necessary consequences like over-working the poor barber-general or forcing him to buy a mirror. ... any questions? alex. p.s. bet you didn't expect the spanish inquisition! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:54:00 EDT From: an@verbum.com Subject: RE: More of the barber of Seville > others. If the statement of the problem had been > > >> There is a small Spanish town where ALL AND ONLY those men who > >> do not shave themselves are shaved by the barbar. > > then I see no way around the paradox. That is, if you accept another These days there is an increasingly popular way out of this paradox: the fuzzy logic way. Instead of admitting only TRUE or FALSE (binary 0 or 1), admit that there are degrees of truth (multivalency [0,1] : any numbers between 0 and 1). Thus, Let S be the proposition that the barber shaves himself and not-S that he does not. Then since S implies not-S, and not-S implies S, the two propositions are logically equivalent: S = not-S. Equivalent propositions have the same truth values: t(S) = t(not-S) = 1 - t(S) Solving for t(S) gives: t(S) = 1/2 ! References: 1) Klir, G.J & Folger,T. A. "Fuzzy Sets, Uncertainty, and Information" 1988. 2) Bart Kosko, "Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems--A Dynamical Systems Approach to Machine Intelligence" 1992. Incidentally, I see an increasing role for fuzzy logic in Natural Language Processing systems where it can handle not only paradoxes but also the more mundane things like linguistic hedges ("very", "many", etc.) Cheers, An Nguyen Lex-Kon, Inc. e-mail: an@verbum.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 19:23:51 +0200 From: Lars Ahrenberg Subject: Re: 3.716 The Barber Paradox Steve Berman in his enlightening reply Guy's original posting about the Barber Paradox ends by saying > (Of course, there's no contradiction if the barber is removed from the > domain of quantification -- 'every man except for the barber') Now, I'd like to suggest that this is the way we normally, or at least, often, interprets statements with a universal quantified NP and an individual NP in two different argument positions. Compare John watched everybody in the room, or No candidate is as good as Brown. In the first case John may well be in the room, but the quantified NP would be understood as referring to the other people in the room, and in the second case, assuming that Brown is a candidate, the quantified NP would be understood as applying to all the other candidates. It would be quite pointless to rebut by saying things like "Oh, he couldn't as there was no mirror in the room" or "But surely Brown is as good as Brown" (unless, of course, you would like to show off as someone knowing logic). A reasonable response to the question "Does the barber shave himself?" or, alternatively, "Who shaves the barber?" is thus that the premise does not give us enough information. One can argue, though, that the fact that the question is asked implies that it should do, and therefore forces us to look for interpretations of the premise that apply to the barber as well. -- Lars Ahrenberg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-729. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-730. Mon 28 Sep 1992. Lines: 142 Subject: 3.730 Parameter Setting Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 12:34:42 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@SBCHEM.SUNYSB.EDU Subject: Parameter Setting and the Garden of Eden. II -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 12:34:42 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@SBCHEM.SUNYSB.EDU Subject: Parameter Setting and the Garden of Eden. II Parameter Setting and the Garden of Eden. II I recently published a statement and discussion of a result in the mathematical theory of languages. In brief, I show that under very general conditions, the group of human languages (=parameter settings in a parameter-setting model of human language) will have defined on it a very specific type of metric structure called an ultrametric topology. Intuitively, using a natural measure of separation between languages, the existing languages should form a tree structure. My posting of this result on LINGUIST has led to many useful and interesting discussions. Some forced me to modify the statement of the result. In particular, my result concerns the variation of linguistic typology, not lexical relatedness. I was misled in my understanding of this last point by the involvement of Joe Greenberg in such projects. My ignorance on this point is now being cured through references kindly suppled by readers. (More than one respondent regarded it as a virtue of my result that it was in fact UN-related to the work on Proto-Nostratic.) Other respondents encouraged me to modify the presentation of the result. At any rate, I enclose here a re-statement of my original argument. It is, as before, in the form of a logical implication: granting certain premises, certain highly nontrivial, testable results follow. As with any such result, one is free to reject the validity for the study of language of the hypotheses I employ. If hypotheses of a general type are accepted, I show that ultrametric structures may be a natural tool in the study of language. Since these are quite new even to physicists (who delight in sifting through mathematics for items of use) I note here a pedagogical review article that explains ultrametric structures to those who have but a rudimentary background in basic algebra. The article is: "Ultrametricity for Physicists", by R. Rammal, G. Toulouse, and M.A. Virasoro, Reviews of Modern Physics 58, 765 (1986) Again, thanks to all who helped me refine the result stated below. J.A. Given SUNY Stony Brook ************************************************************* I ASSUME the following two statements are true: 1. A "principles and parameters" approach to grammar is possible, with the possible human languages corresponding to points in a parameter space. 2. Some quantity which I here term "communicative efficiency" is optimized or near-optimized by each of the languages, equivalently by each of the sets of parameters, that humans do in fact actually employ. I call this quantity "communicative efficiency" just to give it a name. All I require is that SOME QUANTITY be maximized (or nearly maximized), and that that quantity have a specific quality which I here term FRUSTRATION. The term FRUSTRATION is here being used in a specific technical manner: I say that a function defined on a parameter space is FRUSTRATED or has FRUSTRATION if it can be written as the sum of many independent terms or contributions, such that no set of parameters gives an extremal value to a large fraction of the separate terms. The picture implied here is that of a quantity which involves a weighting on the performance of a large number of competing subgoals such that the sets of parameters which maximize one particular term will seldom maximize other terms. Under these conditions, the sets of parameters which maximize the entire "communicative efficiency" function will do so by assigning moderate values to many different terms. The quantity just characterized as FRUSTRATION is found empirically to be a characteristic of many utility functions, cost functions, and free energy functions appropriate to complex systems in engineering, economics, and physics. "Communicative efficiency" functions displaying the trait called above "frustration" have MANY SETS of parameter values for which they are maximized or nearly maximized. This collection of efficient sets of parameter values (to be identified with human languages according to postulate 2 above) forms a HIERARCHICAL TREE-LIKE STRUCTURE under an overlap metric which is a natural way to compare two settings for the parameters. Because there are many near maxima in this collection, the last statement is highly nontrivial. Its chance of being true by accident is vanishingly small. The existence of such a tree-like structure is verified numerically in detail in many cases studied by computer. The tree-like structure can be rigorously constructed mathematically in certain paradigm models called spin glasses which have been studied in detaill by theoretical physics. A good introduction to these topics that doesnot require advanced mathematical background is: "Ultrametricity for Physicists", by R. Rammal, G. Toulouse, and M.A. Virasoro, Reviews of Modern Physics 58, 765 (1986) The tree-like structure just described is called by mathematricians an "ultrametric topology". How much "frustration" must be present in a "communicative efficiency" function in order for one to expect this structure? One has no general theory about this, but only a body of empirical experience that leads one to expect it under the conditions described. Mathematicians studying neural networks use the spin glass systems mentioned above as a paradigm. They have proven theorems corresponding to the statements made above for certain classes of model systems. However, the above characterization is, I think, best regarded as "empirical mathematics", i.e., as a group of statements which numerical and computational experience show to be true in many cases that have been studied. In other words, if an explicit parametrization were available for human grammar, one could explicitly test the implications I discuss here. The result implied is quite nontrivial and rather general. I emphasize that the parameters involved may take discrete values; no postulates of "smoothness", "continuity", etc. need be made. How to verify the extent to which such statements are true? We need to see a large family of languages mapped out in parameter space. I emphasize that the tree-like structures predicted here occur in the variation of human languages as a function of their TYPOLOGY, not as a function of any lexical similarity. So the recent well-publicized studies of language super-families are not relevant to the results obtained here. The above is an argument that, assuming conditions 1 and 2 the set of linguistic typologies actually realized will form a "family tree structure". These results make no assumptions about any contact between languages, influence of one language upon another, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-730. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-731. Wed 30 Sep 1992. Lines: 134 Subject: 3.731 Call For Papers Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 11:28:01 +0100 From: GEERAERTS DIRK Subject: Conferences: Cognitive Linguistics 2) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 11:19 IST From: Brenda Danet Subject: Call for Papers 3) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 13:47 EDT From: Cathy Ball Subject: Call for Papers: Corpus-Based Linguistics -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 11:28:01 +0100 From: GEERAERTS DIRK Subject: Conferences: Cognitive Linguistics 3rd International Cognitive Linguistics Conference REMINDER: DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS If you intend to contribute a paper to the 3rd International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (which will be held in Leuven, Belgium, from July 19 to 23, 1993), please send four copies of a one-page abstract to the following address. The deadline for submission is November 1. Dirk Geeraerts / ICLA93 Departement Linguistiek University of Leuven Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 11:19 IST From: Brenda Danet Subject: Call for Papers ****CALL FOR PAPERS ON COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION**** International Pragmatics Association Conference July 25-30, 1993 Kobe, Japan I am interested in organizing a panel on computer-mediated communication, with the preliminary title, "Linguistic and Cultural Aspects of Computer-Mediated Communication." Papers may deal with private electronic mail, discussion lists (moderated or unmoderated), or interactive modes like IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and MuDs (Multi-User Domains). Ideally, the panel will discuss not only linguistic aspects of these forms of communication but their implications for identity, culture and community, or for orality, literacy, and the history of writing. If it not possible to put together 3-4 papers on CMC alone, the panel might also discuss communi- cation in other new technologies, such as fax or answering machines. Although it is rather late to organize such a panel (the dead- line is Nov. 1), I have the encouragement of one of the program committee members, Bruce Fraser, to do so. The very technologies which we will talk about will make this possible! Please send abstracts and preliminary suggestions ASAP to *both* Prof. Brenda Danet BITNET: kcubd@hujivm1 Dept. of Communication INTERNET: kcubd@vm1.huji.ac.il Hebrew University of Jerusalem FAX: 972-2-827069 Mt. Scopus Jerusalem, Israel 91905 *and* Prof. Bruce Fraser BITNET: sed91ln at buacca School of Education FAX: 617-353-3924 Boston University N.B. I will be in Boston between October 4 and 10, so if at all possible please send abstracts and queries to Bruce and me during that week, c/o his Bitnet address above, or by fax. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 13:47 EDT From: Cathy Ball Subject: Call for Papers: Corpus-Based Linguistics Call for Papers Georgetown University Round Table On Languages and Linguistics (GURT) Pre-Session: CORPUS-BASED LINGUISTICS Wednesday March 10, 1993 The analysis of large text corpora is engaging the interest of linguists from many subfields, as the field turns away from linguistic analysis based on introspection to data-oriented approaches. Currently, insights are not fully shared, as the subfields and related disciplines often present research at different conferences. For this full-day GURT pre-session, 20-minute papers are solicited on the following topics: - the design and collection of text/speech corpora - tools for searching and processing on-line corpora - critical assessments of on-line corpora and corpus-processing tools - methodological issues in corpus-based analysis - applications and results in linguistics and related disciplines, including language teaching, computational linguistics, historical linguistics, discourse analysis, and stylistic analysis Send 1 page (500-word) abstracts to cball@guvax.georgetown.edu (Internet), cball@guvax (Bitnet), or Catherine N. Ball, Dept. of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington DC 20057. Electronic submissions are encouraged. Please include name, institution, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. Deadline for receipt of abstracts is Dec. 1, 1992. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-731. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-732. Wed 30 Sep 1992. Lines: 131 Subject: 3.732 Responses, Greetings, FYI Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 09:38 PDT From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: 3.710 Obituary: David Abercrombie 2) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 10:01:39 CDT From: Janice Milner Lasseter Subject: Re: 3.724 Summary: *dog* as sexist language 3) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 11:20:18 +0200 From: Swann Philip Subject: ASL and Handedness 4) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 10:55 CDT From: kkrohn@tamuts.tamu.edu (Katherine Elizabeth Krohn) Subject: student taxes 5) Date: 27 September 1992, 14:09:54 CST From: Margaret.E.Winters.GA3704.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: Lshona tova -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 92 09:38 PDT From: Vicki Fromkin Subject: Re: 3.710 Obituary: David Abercrombie What very sad news on today's LINGUIST. David Abercrombie not only wrote about the British School of Phonetics, he was one of the principlef scholars of that school and of phonetics throughout the world. I have my always been so proud to be counted by David as one of his 'academic granddaughters' -- not in years of course,but because Peter Ladefoged was his student and I was Peter's. David Abercrombie's phonetics was linguistic phonetics and we all owe him a great debt. One of the first ways we can repay this debt is by making sure our students read his papers and books. Vicki Fromkin -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 10:01:39 CDT From: Janice Milner Lasseter Subject: Re: 3.724 Summary: *dog* as sexist language Thanks for this interesting dialogue about yet another instance of offensive terms describing woman. Janice Milner Lasseter, Associate Professor and Chair Department of English, Samford University Birmingham, AL 35229 jmlasset @Samford, 205-870-2946; 2926 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 11:20:18 +0200 From: Swann Philip Subject: ASL and Handedness Brief note to thank the people who replied to my query on ASL and handedness. I won't post a summary, since the main points were made in Barss' and Battison's postings (3.684), but will forward the messages I received on request. Shortly after I asked, there was an excellent French t.v. programme on deaf people complete with simultaneous signed translation. Although I know no sign language, it was easy to see that the interpreter was right-handed. Philip Swann University of Geneva -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 10:55 CDT From: kkrohn@tamuts.tamu.edu (Katherine Elizabeth Krohn) Subject: student taxes Following is information about a bill before the (US) House of Representatives which, if passed, would have a significant effect on the income-tax liability of graduate students all the way back to 1986. Please feel free to share this information with anyone who might be interested. There is a bill, currently being considered by the U. S. House of Representatives which would RETURN THE STIPENDS OF GRADUATE STUDENTS TO A TAX EXEMPT STATUS. Prior to the Reagan-Bush (No New Taxes!) era, Graduate Student Stipends were not taxed, and Tom Lewis (R- Florids) has proposed a bill which not only would make stipends TAX-EXEMPT, but would also RETURN ALL TAXES PAID SINCE 1986 on Grad. income. The Bill is H.R. 4 418 and is currently under consideration, though I am not sure if it has cleared committee or not. If anyone would like to know the name of his/her representative, a call may be made to (800) 347-1997 (Federal Information Center). Many thanks to John O'Brien, Indiana University, who originally made this information electronically available. --Katie Krohn Texas A & M University kkrohn@tamuts.tamu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Date: 27 September 1992, 14:09:54 CST From: Margaret.E.Winters.GA3704.at.SIUCVMB@tamvm1.tamu.edu Subject: Lshona tova Following the example of some other networks where people write often enough to feel they know each other, we'd like to wish a happy new year 5753 to the LINGUIST net. Margaret Winters and Geoff Nathan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-732. ________________________________________________________________ Linguist List: Vol-3-733. Wed 30 Sep 1992. Lines: 191 Subject: 3.733 Positions Available Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 28 Sep 1992 14:05:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Dorothy Rissel Subject: Position in applied linguistics/ESL 2) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 13:16:54 CDT From: ward@pico.ling.nwu.edu (Gregory Ward) Subject: job announcement 3) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:49 PDT From: HSCYT@TWNAS886.BitNet Subject: JOB -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 28 Sep 1992 14:05:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Dorothy Rissel Subject: Position in applied linguistics/ESL POSITION OPENING STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO Assistant Professor of Second Language Education Specialist in the Teaching of English as a Second Language Qualifications: An earned doctorate in ESL or a related professional field or discipline (applied linguistics, second language education, TESOL) Research and a desire to publish in the area of the acquisition of English as a second language among school-aged populations A strong background in measurement and assessment is highly desired Responsibilities:Develop and teach courses for master's and doctoral programs in second language education (ESL, TESOL, foreign language) Conduct a program of research appropriate to the special- ization Seek external funding for research activities Provide academic advisement to Ed.M. and Ph.D. students including those seeking certification Supervise doctoral research Build relationships with local schools Terms: This is a tenure-track position with the initial appoint- ment for three years. Salary is competitive and depends on experience and qualifications. Range: mid-to-upper 30's. Full health, dental and retirement benefits. The University: The University at Buffalo is the largest and most compre- hensive University Center of the SUNY system. Ranking among the major research universities of the nation, it is the only public university in the New York-New England region elected to membership in the American Association of Universities. The 60-member faculty of the Graduate School of Education conducts research and graduate pro- grams in many school-related areas. The program in sec- ond language education, with which this position is affiliated, is part of the Department of Learning and Instruction which includes programs in mathematics educa- tion, language arts, bilingual education, social studies education, and many more fields associated with instruc- tion in the schools. To Apply: Send a letter stating your qualifications for the posi- tion and your resume and/or professional credentials along with the name, position, address and telephone number of three academic references. All correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Dorothy Rissel Chair, Second Language Education Search Committee State University of New York at Buffalo Department of Learning and Instruction 593 Christopher Baldy Hall Buffalo, New York 14260 Direct inquiries via: Telephone: (716) 645-2138; bitnet: insriss@ubvms.bitnet Screening begins on December 1, 1992 and will continue until the position is filled. The State University of New York is an equal opportunity/affirmative ac- tion employer. Personnel are chosen on the basis of ability without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability or marital status in accordance with federal or state law. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 13:16:54 CDT From: ward@pico.ling.nwu.edu (Gregory Ward) Subject: job announcement PHONOLOGY POSITION - NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY The Department of Linguistics at Northwestern University announces the opening of a new tenure-track position in phonology at the rank of assistant professor beginning September 1, 1993. Candidates must hold a Ph.D in linguistics or a related field by the starting date of the position. We are seeking candidates with a primary specialization in phonology as well as additional expertise in one or more of the following areas: morphology, language typology, language change, language acquisition, and computational linguistics. Preference will be given to candidates with publications beyond the dissertation and/or teaching experience of demonstrably high quality. Salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications. Applications are due at Northwestern by JANUARY 22, 1993. The application should include the candidate's CV, a brief statement of current and projected research, teaching evaluations (if available), and three letters of reference. Send materials/direct inquiries to: Phonology Search Committee Department of Linguistics Northwestern University 2016 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-4090 phone: (708) 491-7020 fax: (708) 491-3770 email: jbp@pippi.ling.nwu.edu One or more members of the department will be at the LSA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles (7-10 January 1993) to discuss the position and answer questions. Northwestern is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and applications from minority and women candidates are especially welcome. Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the United States. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:49 PDT From: HSCYT@TWNAS886.BitNet Subject: JOB INSTITUTE OF HISTORY & PHILOLOGY, ACADEMIA SINICA The Linguistics Section of the Institute of History & Philology, Academia Sinica invites applications from citizens of the Republic of China for on one-year entry-level research position with the possibility toward tenure track post after the term. The area of specialization is open, but preference will be given to those in acoustic phonetics, Austro-Asiatic, Kam-Thai, language acquisition, or the biological, psychological, or neural aspects of phonetics/phonology. Applicants already holding a PhD will be considered for the position of Assistant Research Fellow(equivalent to an Assistant Professor); applicants holding an M.A. only will be considered for the position of Research Assistant. These are purely research positions and not teaching is required. The beginning salaries for these positions are kNT56,270(about $2,250) and NT40,010(about $1,600) per month respectively, plus (substantial) bonuses. Applicants should send a vitae, transcripts from graduate school, an abstract of the MA thesis or dissertation(including the title, chapter by chapter summary, methodology, materials, and main conclusions), and three letters of recommendation to Professor Ho Dah-an, Head Linguistics Division Institute of History and Philology Taipei 115 Taiwan ROC e-mail: hsphil@twnas886.bitnet The deadline for receipt of these materials is March 31, 1993. Those applying will be notified of our decision around the beginning of April. Those notified of preliminary acceptance would then be expected to send the complete text of the thesis or dissertation by the end of April for evaluation. For more information, applicants should write to the address above or send e-mail messages. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-732. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16129814, 160 lines Posted: 9:38am EDT, Wed Sep 30/92, imported: 9:44am EDT, Wed Sep 30/92 Subject: 3.734 Baby-talk, Non-sexist Language To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-734. Wed 30 Sep 1992. Lines: 159 Subject: 3.734 Baby-talk, Non-sexist Language Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 10:18-0400 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: Baby talk, inspired by 3.720 Reanalyses (Part 1) 2) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 12:29:15 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: 3.724 *dog* as non-sexist language 3) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 14:28-0400 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: 3.724 Summary: 'dog' as sexist language -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 10:18-0400 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: Baby talk, inspired by 3.720 Reanalyses (Part 1) >> Linguist List: Vol-3-720. Wed 23 Sep 1992. >> From: Dennis Baron >> Subject: reanalysis >> And I know quite a few children who reanalyzed the _you_ in >> certain phrases: both our younger kids in response to >> "Do you want me to carry you?" would say, "Carry you, Mommy." >> And in response to "I'm going to put you to bed now". >> "No, Daddy putyou." This reminded me of the following. I am not a Japanese expert, so this should be confirmed by someone who knows whereof they speak. In Japanese, small children use the "brash" 1sg pronoun /boku/, which in adult speech is mostly proscribed. But in the "baby talk" register that adults use in talking to toddlers, the adult uses /boku/ as a 2sg pronoun! Apparently the adult anticipates a mistake like the one Dennis Baron describes, and tries to avert it by calling the child "I". Apparently this practice goes even further. I was in a Japanese restaurant with my son, who was then about three. We asked for a spoon for the boy, and the waitress conveyed the request into the kitchen in Japanese. A question came back, which I think was /doko-ni?/, literally "Where?", but I think in this context it meant "For whom?". The waitress answered, /boku-ni/, literally "For me.", but using a 1sg pronoun that a well-bred young woman would never use of herself unless she were making a political statement of some sort. My only theory about this answer is that it was intended to mean "For one who would be expected to call himself /boku/, i.e., for the little boy." Is this plausible? Perhaps I misheard. On another subject, how widespread is the English baby-talk in which the baby is addressed with a special 2sg pronoun "ums", with 3sg agreement? I've only seen it written. "Does ums want aunty to carry ums?" If anybody knows a native speaker of this atrocity, I'm interested. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 12:29:15 -0400 (EDT) From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: 3.724 *dog* as non-sexist language The ad in question read If your date is a dog, get a vet. Am I missing something? One seeks for many qualities in a date. Physical attractiveness is frequently one of them. But only one of them. One important trait that I seek in a date is quality of character. Many other people would agree. When they read the billboard, they might be more likely to conclude that the *dog*, i.e., person of low character, was a male. Right? Also, if the status value of the car is what is being sold, then in order to achieve contrast, the proper intended meaning for *dog* is that of "a disreputable person" or "a loser". The billboard has lots of implications. It might be best politically to suppress the ones that don't fit a particular political agenda. But it does violence to the data. Slang tends to be crude. Its terms tend to be polysemous, its usage multiply evocative and ambiguous. What if the results of the informal survey had showed clearly that most readers assumed the date to be male. Would the billboard then be "sexist"? What if the responses were evenly balnced (50 percent saying the date was male and 50 percent saying the date was female.)? The informal study reported was not in any sense systematic or scientific. It gathered largely anecdotal evidence to support a conclusion announced in advance. I can't avoid the impression that the purpose of the *study* reported here is to impose conformity of meaning and expression in order to make an example of the car dealer that posted the billboard. I can certainly understand that - I think this sort of advocacy rather than any sort of scholarship is an important part of the self-understanding of many academics. But surely ambiguity and plurality of meaning need not be sacrificed to that end? Isn't sociolinguistics far more sophisticated in its methods? I would think that in sociolinguistics, as e.g., in experimental psychology the experimental protocol would be designed to screen out any biases of the tester. JA Given SUNY Stony Brook -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 14:28-0400 From: Allan C. Wechsler Subject: 3.724 Summary: 'dog' as sexist language I agree with Wheeler's conclusions about the semantics of "dog"; further, the car dealer must have been being disingenuous when he denied sexist intent. But I have a nit to pick with one of the cited studies. If we claim to be doing science, we should at least do it right. In particular, I take issue with the way the results are reported from the study by Brice. Brice's questionnaire was "disseminated to 75 female and 75 male students"; we then find statistical summary statements like "... 38.7% said ...", "61.3% of the female informants said ...". If percentages are used instead of actual counts, it's unwarranted to give three significant figures with a sample this small. The third figure only becomes significant with samples of (roughly) 1,000,000; even the second figure is questionable for samples of less than 10,000. While I don't expect to see margins of error or 95% confidence figures in an informal posting, it was a little jarring to see a digit that represented the opinion of about a twelfth of a student. (I anticipate a possible rebuttal: "But it is simply TRUE that the cited percentage of the sample responded as shown; it would have been false to say 60%." Yes. I advocate using the word "about" as a code to show that an approximation is being presented instead of the exact, but not statistically generalizable, figure. Something like "46 of the 75 women (about 60%) said..." would have been nice. Let me reiterate that I think all the conclusions drawn are drawn validly. It was only the statistical detail of the presentation that bugged me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-734. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16218750, 148 lines Posted: 5:22pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 5:27pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92 Subject: 3.735 FYI: NSF To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-735. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 147 Subject: 3.735 FYI: NSF Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 18:35:26 CDT From: beatrice@lex.ling.nwu.edu (Beatrice Santorini) Subject: nsf funding in the new world order -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 18:35:26 CDT From: beatrice@lex.ling.nwu.edu (Beatrice Santorini) Subject: nsf funding in the new world order UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE ---29 September 1992--- UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE *** BASIC RESEARCH IN PERIL at the NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF) *** The Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Walter Massey, has expressed clear intent to redirect the NSF away from its mission in basic research toward a new mission to "accept a major role in fostering links between research and technology" to foster product development and assist industry. As a result of his efforts, Congress passed a report with language similar to the original Senate report appearing below (at the bottom). This was attached to a large VA/HUD/IA appropriations bill, consequently receiving very little attention, and was not publicized. All of this comes at the urging of the National Science Board (NSB), the agency overseeing NSF. The NSB report is also excerpted below. James Duderstadt, President of the University of Michigan, is chairman of NSB. A special commission was created to study how to integrate NSF efforts with the needs of industry. This "Special Commission on the Future of NSF" has been given only 75 days from its first meeting to come up with a final report. They are accepting input through October 15 -- THAT'S JUST 2 WEEKS FROM NOW This whole process has not been well advertised in the scientific community, and most of the scientific community does not know about it! **************************************************************************** WHAT YOU MUST DO: remember, input deadline is Oct 15 1) PASS THE WORD AROUND-- share with faculty members in all interested departments (physics, chemistry, atmospheric & oceanic sciences, earth sciences, math, and various humanities including linguistics, poli. sci. and anthropology). Share with YOUR DEANS AND RESEARCH ADMINISTRATORS 2) WRITE TO THE COMMITTEE: Special Commission on the Future of NSF, Rm. 546 National Science Foundation 1800 G St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20550 fax: (202)-357-7346 3) TALK TO THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS: *=member of National Science Board William Danforth, Co-Chair. Chancellor of Washington U. in St.Louis Robert Galvin, Co-Chair. Former CEO of Motorola, and a lawyer. Jacqueline Barton prof. of chemistry at Cal Tech University Lindy Boggs former U.S. Representative from Louisiana Lewis Branscomb prof. of public service at Harvard University Peter Eisenberger director of Materials Institute at Princeton Marye Anne Fox * prof. of chemistry at U. of Texas C. Peter Magrath president, National Association of State Univerisities and Land-Grant Colleges Ruben Mettler former CEO of TRW Percy Pierre research vice-president at Michigan State University Frank Rhodes * president of Cornell University Earl Richardson president of Morgan State University Ian Ross * president emeritus of AT&T Bell Labs William Rutter CEO of Chiron Corporation Donna Shalala Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison *************************************************************************** Data and definitions from Science and Engineering Indicators, 10th Edition, NSB-91-1, issued by the National Science Board: Basic research: Basic research has as its objective a fuller knowledge or understanding of the subject under study, without specific applications in mind. In industry, basic research is defined as research that advances scientific knowledge but does not have specific commercial objectives, although such investigations may be in fields of present or potential interest to the reporting company. Applied research: Applied research is directed toward gaining knowledge or understanding necessary for determining the means by which a recognized and specific need may be met. In industry, applied research includes investigations directed to the discovery of new scientific knowledge having specific commercial objectives with respect to products, proceses, or services. U.S. R&D funds in millions of constant 1982 dollars (dollars adjusted by GNP) 1=total R&D(sum of 2,3,4) 2=basic research 3=applied research 4=development FFRDC=Federally Funded Research and Development Center *=preliminary -----SOURCE OF FUNDS------ -------PERFORMER OF WORK--------- fed. indus- univer- non- fed. indus- univer- non- year total govt try sities profits govt try sities FFRDC profits 1 1990* 110470 48591 56757 3376 1746 12213 79173 12137 3641 3305 2 1990* 16636 10357 3441 1972 865 1972 3609 7851 1896 1307 3 1990* 25742 9622 14337 1161 623 2883 17514 3675 569 1102 4 1990* 68092 28612 38979 243 258 7358 58050 611 1176 897 1 1980 73255 34557 36065 1574 1059 9006 51919 7171 2650 2508 2 1980 9922 6963 1485 939 535 1395 1546 4769 1326 887 3 1980 16232 7530 7809 525 368 2931 9858 2004 594 846 4 1980 47101 20065 26771 110 156 4680 40516 399 730 776 International Research & Development, as a % of Gross National Product 1/2/3: 1=total R&D, 2=non-defense R&D, 3=% of total R&D on basic research 19xx United West United year States Japan Germany France Kingdom Italy Sweden 75 2.2/1.6/13 2.0/2.0/12 2.2/2.1/26 1.8/1.5/NA 2.1/1.5/14 0.9/0.9/20 1.7/1.4/NA 76 2.2/1.6/13 2.0/2.0/15 2.1/2.0/25 1.8/1.4/NA NA/ NA/13 0.9/0.8/20 NA/ NA/NA 77 2.2/1.6/13 2.0/2.0/15 2.1/2.0/25 1.8/1.4/21 NA/ NA/13 0.9/0.9/20 1.8/1.5/18 78 2.1/1.6/14 2.0/2.0/16 2.2/2.1/22 1.8/1.4/NA 2.2/1.6/13 0.8/0.8/19 NA/ NA/NA 79 2.2/1.6/14 2.1/2.1/15 2.4/2.3/21 1.8/1.4/21 NA/ NA/13 0.8/0.8/16 1.9/1.7/18 80 2.3/1.7/13 2.2/2.2/14 2.4/2.3/21 1.8/1.4/21 NA/ NA/13 0.9/0.8/15 NA/ NA/NA 81 2.4/1.8/13 2.3/2.3/13 2.5/2.4/22 2.0/1.5/21 2.4/1.7/13 1.0/1.0/15 2.4/2.2/23 82 2.5/1.8/13 2.4/2.4/13 2.6/2.5/21 2.1/1.6/21 NA/ NA/NA 1.1/1.0/15 NA/ NA/NA 83 2.6/1.9/13 2.6/2.5/13 2.5/2.4/21 2.1/1.7/21 2.2/1.6/NA 1.1/1.1/16 2.6/2.4/NA 84 2.7/1.9/13 2.6/2.6/13 2.6/2.5/NA 2.2/1.7/20 NA/ NA/NA 1.0/ NA/16 NA/ NA/NA 85 2.8/2.0/12 2.8/2.8/12 2.8/2.7/18 2.3/1.8/20 2.3/1.6/NA 1.1/1.1/16 3.0/2.6/20 86 2.8/1.9/14 2.8/2.8/13 2.8/2.7/NA 2.2/1.8/20 2.4/1.7/NA 1.1/1.1/17 NA/ NA/NA 87 2.8/1.9/14 2.8/2.8/13 2.9/2.8/19 2.3/1.8/20 2.3/1.8/NA 1.2/1.2/NA 3.0/2.7/23 88 2.7/1.9/14 2.9/2.9/13 2.9/2.7/NA 2.3/1.8/23 2.2/1.7/NA 1.3/1.3/NA NA/ NA/NA Note how basic research is a small fraction of the total research, and is supported primarily by the federal government, with most of the work being done at universities. Basic research is the underpinning of the advancement of science, the very foundation of technology, and we get all this for a mere 0.4% of the GNP. But the total pot for NSF is unlikely to increase commensurately with the new demands on it, so reductions in basic research are inevitable unless we can convince the Committee to restore basic science as the principle mission of NSF. In 1985, NSF was ordered to support "fundamental engineering research" but the budget was not increased to accomodate the expanded mission. The following has been excerpted from an e-mail put out by APS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-735. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16219541, 222 lines Posted: 5:26pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 5:59pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92 Subject: 3.736 Meeting in Netherlands: Computational Linguistics To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-736. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 221 Subject: 3.736 Meeting in Netherlands: Computational Linguistics Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 14:52:41 +0100 From: wietske@kub.nl (Wietske Sijtsma, ITK Tilburg) Subject: Meeting in Netherlands: Computational Linguistics -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 14:52:41 +0100 From: wietske@kub.nl (Wietske Sijtsma, ITK Tilburg) Subject: Meeting in Netherlands: Computational Linguistics CLIN 1992 THIRD COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS IN THE NETHERLANDS MEETING Date : October, Friday 30th 1992 Place: ITK (Tilburg University) Warandelaan 2 Tilburg As most of you probably already know, the third CLIN meeting will be held at the Institute for Language Technology and Artificial Intelligence (Tilburg University) in Tilburg. The programme of this year's CLIN meeting is included below. Below you will also find instructions on how to reach Tilburg University. Registration will take place on October 30th, from 9 o'clock onwards. The registration fee is Dfl. 40. The registration fee includes coffee, lunch and drinks, plus a copy of the proceedings of last year's CLIN meeting. In case you have any further queries, please contact the local organisers. We look forward to meeting you all on October 30th. Wietske Sijtsma & Olga Zweekhorst local organisers CLIN III meeting --------------------------The Programme-------------------------------- Programme of the third CLIN meeting: 10.00 - 10.45 Keynote speaker: Anton Nijholt (Technical University Twente) Linguistic engineering: Survey and examples SESSION 1 ========= 10.50-11.20 Adam Killgarriff: Polysemy and what NLP should do about it 11.20-11.45 Coffee 11.45-12.15 NO LECTURE 12.15-12.45 Dirk Heylen, Andre Schenk & Marc Verhagen: A constraint-based analysis of collocational structures 12.45-13.45 Lunch 13.45-14.15 Ineke Schuurman: On four types of infinitival complements 14.15-14.45 Gerrit Rentier: Dutch extraction from coordinated structures in HPSG 14.45-15.15 Paola Monachesi: Italian object clitics and clitic climbing in HOSG 15.15-15.40 Tea 15.40-16.10 Lieve de Wachter & Jan Provoost: Interpretation of compounds 16.10-16.40 P. van der Kamp: Development and use of a lexicographic information system 16.40-17.10 John van der Voort van der Kley: Towards a dictionary entry parser for the electronic WNT 17.10-onwards Drinks SESSION 2 ========= 10.50-11.20 Walter Daelemans, Gert Durieux, Steven Gillis & Antal van den Bosch: Exploring artificial learning algorithms: Learning to stress Dutch simplex words 11.20-11.45 Coffee 11.45-12.15 Antal van den Bosch & Walter Daelemans: Corpus-based methods for grapheme-to-phoneme conversion in Dutch 12.15-12.45 Erik Tjong Kim Sang: Acquiring digital phonology 12.45-13.45 Lunch 13.45-14.15 Arthur Dirksen: Phonological parsing 14.15-14.45 Marc van Oostendorp: Parsing prosodic structures in lines 14.45-15.15 Toine Andernach: A realistic and semi-automatic Wizard of Oz experiment for testing a speech-driven telephone directory information system 15.15-15.40 Tea 15.40-16.10 Jan Jaspars: Partial and constructive modal logics for reasoning about growth of knowledge 16.10-16.40 Kaiying Yang & Jiping Sun: Multilingual machine translation of number words: A case of an interlingua-based MT system 16.40-17.10 Tim Fernando: Extending the dynamic interpretation 17.10-onwards Drinks SESSION 3 ========= 10.50-11.20 Klaas Sikkel: A simple-minded view on parsing 11.20-11.45 Coffee 11.45-12.15 Gertjan van Noord: Parsing Categorial Grammars with liberation 12.15-12.45 Koen Versmissen: Modalities and models in Categorial Grammar 12.45-13.45 Lunch 13.45-14.15 G. van der Hoeven: An algorithm for the construction of dependency trees 14.15-14.45 James Au-Yeung: OR relation for efficient parsing 14.45-15.15 NO LECTURE 15.15-15.40 Tea 15.40-16.10 Frederik Somsen: Better performance without competence? 16.10-16.40 Rens Bod: Monte Carlo parsing 16.40-17.10 Hans Paulussen: Augmenting automatic grammatical tagging 17.10-onwards Drinks ---------------How to find Tilburg University------------------ Tilburg University (KUB) is situated in the south-western part of Tilburg and is very easy to reach by car or by public transport By train -------- Tilburg University is only a five-minute's walk from Tilburg West Station. Slow trains from Breda, Eindhoven and 's-Hertogenbosch stop at this station. Those travelling on fast trains have to get off at Tilburg Central Station. From there they can either take a bus or a taxi to the university, or change to a slow train to Tilburg West (3 trains per hour). Arriving at Tilburg-West (train) Station ---------------------------------------- Leaving the station (down the stairs) turn left into Conservatoriumlaan. Turn right at the first cross roads (Conservatoriumlaan-Prof.Verbernelaan) into Prof.Verbernelaan. Keep straight until you get to the woods. On the left side of the road you will find a map of the university grounds. Arriving at Tilburg Central Station (by bus) ------------------------------------------- To get to the university take bus no.6, no. 7. As from the summer of 1992 the no. 8 bus will also stop near the university, on the corner of Cobbenhagenlaan and Hogeschoollaan. To get to Tilburg University, get off the bus at the stop across the street from `Interpolis' on Conservatoriumlaan. Cross the cross-roads to your right (Conservatoriumlaan-Prof.Verbernelaan) and turn left into Prof.Verbernelaan (at the side of the Interpolis building). On the left side of the street you will find a map of the university grounds. By car from Waalwijk, Kaatsheuvel and Loon op Zand -------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-736. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16219375, 121 lines Posted: 5:29pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 5:51pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92 Subject: 3.737 Conferences: Kentucky Foreign Language; Speech Communication To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-737. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 120 Subject: 3.737 Conferences: Kentucky Foreign Language; Speech Communication Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 15:04:33 EDT From: Greg Stump Subject: Call for papers 2) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 9:28:12 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: Speech Communication Association -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 15:04:33 EDT From: Greg Stump Subject: Call for papers The 46th annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference will be held on April 22-24, 1993, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The conference will include sessions devoted to linguistic theory and TESL. If you wish to present a paper in one of these sessions, send one copy of a one-page abstract to Greg Stump (sessions on linguistic theory) or to Barbara Kennedy (sessions on TESL) at the following address: Department of English, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0027. Alternatively, abstracts may be submitted by e-mail to the following addresses: eng101@ukcc.uky.edu (Stump), engblk@ukcc.uky.edu (Kennedy). Please specify whether your abstract is for a 20-minute or a 45-minute paper. The deadline for submission of abstracts is November 15, 1992. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 9:28:12 -0700 (PDT) From: VCSPC005@VAX.CSUN.EDU (AHARRIS - Alan Harris) Subject: Speech Communication Association Please announce: schedule of meetings, Commission on Semiotics, Speech Communication Association annual national meeting, October 29-Nov.1,'92 Hilton, Chicago [abbreviated version] Th.10/29 4-5:20 pm/Conf rm 5b "Semiotic Determinism and Visual Signs: Towards a Theory of Textual Determinism. . ." B. King, Widener U. "Semiotics, Reversibility, and the Implicate (Enfolded) Order" J. Gemin, U. Wisc. Oshkosh "C.S. Peirce and the Analytic Destruction of Argument:. . . " T. Puckett, E. Wash U. ch: J. Lundy, U. of Wisc.; resp: R. Lanigan, SIU Fri.,10/30 2:30-3:50 pm, Conf.rm 5e "World Beat: Returning Culture Through Integral Music" K. Williams, OU "Hispanic TV: The Emergence of a Third Text" E. Lozano, OU "Signs in Transition" A. Mickunas, OU ch: J. Tumas-Serna, Hollins Coll; resp: D. Descutner, OU Fri., 10/30 7-8:20 pm, Conf. rm 5b "A Semiotic Perspective on the Structure of Recovery" R. Slagle, CSU Northridge "Enduring Messages: A communicative Semiotic of Walls" A. Harris, N. McChesney,CSU, Northridge "The Poetic Function of 'Going Home'" M. Kaiser, SIU ch: R. Wolin, Babson Coll; resp. E. Peterson, U. Maine Sat. 10/31 Business Meeting 8:30-9:50 am Conf. Rm. 5a Sat. 10/31 11:30-12:50 pm Conf. Rm. 5i "TV as icon and Index, and Something Else Entirely: R. Gozzi, Jr., Bradley U. "Discursive Structure and Discursive Practice: Social Action Implications. . . " G. Schoening, LaSalle U. " The Advertising Function of Newspaper Photographs" A. Himsl, U. Maine, Orano ch: R. Hobbs, Babson Coll; resp. J. Tumas-Serna, Hollins Coll Sat. 10/31 5:30-6:50 pm Conf. rm 4b "The Other as Alien, Monster, Robot: P. Salus, Sun User Grp. "Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in SF. . ." M. Pounds, CSU, Long Beach ch: A. Harris, CSU Northridge; resp. T. Puckett, E. Wash. U. Sun. 11/1 10-11:20 am Conf. Rm 5d "Stories as Signs: What is the Difference between Sexual Suggestion and Violation?" R. Pietropaolo, Villanova U. "Breaching Codes: The Aesthetic, Moral, and Social Dimensions of Sexual Violation" L. Townsend, Villanova U. "The Ambiguities of 'Hooking Up'" G. Mead, Villanova U. ch: A. Smith, Villanova; resp. J. Martinez, Babson Coll Sun. 11/1 11:30-12:50 pm, Conf. Rm 5a "Hard Sell/Soft Sell: Computer Commercails and the Contesting of the Hegemonic Cultural Elite" K. Kitalong, Mich. Tech. U. "The Mismeasure of Mesomorphy: A Critical Analysis of . . Body Building" R. Fiordo, Penn State U. "TV News, Objectivity, and Abortion" J. Chung, OSU ch: A. Harris, CSU, Northridge; resp. A. Smith, Villanova U. ====================================================================== Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off: Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874 Speech Communication Department hm: California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872 SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663 Northridge, CA 91330 Internet: AHARRIS@VAX.CSUN.EDU ====================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-737. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16220162, 126 lines Posted: 6:23pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 6:29pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92 Subject: 3.738 Queries: Spoonerisms, Drift, Like, Chinese To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-738. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 125 Subject: 3.738 Queries: Spoonerisms, Drift, Like, Chinese Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 10:07:23 EST From: mark Subject: Spoonerism 2) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 14:45:29 CDT From: hmg@unlinfo.unl.edu (hans gilde) Subject: Re: 3.633 Linguistic Drift 3) Date: 25 Sep 1992 08:02:09 -0300 From: WTGORDON@AC.DAL.CA Subject: like 4) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 09:35:09 EDT From: bai@kenyon.edu Subject: Are you interested in a Chinese list? -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 10:07:23 EST From: mark Subject: Spoonerism A recent posting writes: > My favorite antimony is the story of the hanged prisoner, and one > of the best discussion I've seen of antimony and paradox is "Antimony" is a metal (symbol Sb, from Latin stibium); he means "antinomy". I wonder how common this spoonerism (metathesis, if you want to be formal) is? Neither word is likely to be much used except by the learned. My dictionary says that the [name of the] metal is primary-stressed on the first syllable, and the paradox on the second; but "antinomy" is one of those words which, on the face of them, I have to FORCE myself to stress correctly. I wonder how much effect that has on the confusion; and also whether there's an influence from whatever often causes children to pronounce "animal" as "aminal". Mark A. Mandel Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200 320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 14:45:29 CDT From: hmg@unlinfo.unl.edu (hans gilde) Subject: Re: 3.633 Linguistic Drift Is there a possibility that English is forming a new linguistic rule that stipulates that compounded personal pronouns must be in the nominative regardless of conventional considerations of case. I have heard and read examples of this phenomenon's occurrance not only after prepostions but as direct and indirect objects. Is this tendency more prevalent in American than in British English? Hans Gilde hmgunlinfo@unl.edu (402) 472-1786 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: 25 Sep 1992 08:02:09 -0300 From: WTGORDON@AC.DAL.CA Subject: like Has anyone made a start on analyzing one of the major semantic viruses of the 90s, the ubiquitous "like"? (Attested: So I'm there, like goin' "yeah"; He like works, like fixing like tires.) It seems to function variously as a filler, a marker of concession, approximation, qualification, emphasis, irony, disbelief...What else? Terry Gordon (WTGORDON@AC.DAL.CA) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 09:35:09 EDT From: bai@kenyon.edu Subject: Are you interested in a Chinese list? Dear Friends: We would like to set up a discussion list that promote communication among teachers, researchers and students of Chinese. Topics for such discussion may include: 1)theory and practice in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, 2)linguistics, literature and the teaching of Chinese, 3) technology and the teaching of Chinese, 4)creative classroom activities... If you think this is a good idea, please send your comments and your e-mail address to one of the names below. Once we find enough people interested in this, we will try to find a site for the list. Jianhua Bai, Kenyon College bai@vax001.kenyon.edu Tim Xie, UC Davis twxie@ucdavis.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-738. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243012, 90 lines Posted: 10:38pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 9:12pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.739 Queries: Syntax and dysphasia; Indirect Discourse To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-739. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 89 Subject: 3.739 Queries: Syntax and dysphasia; Indirect Discourse Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 15:46:03 BST From: Mary Tait Subject: Syntactic Theory and Dysphasic Speech 2) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 16:37:04 BST From: Martin Wynne Subject: Computational analysis of indirect discourse -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 15:46:03 BST From: Mary Tait Subject: Syntactic Theory and Dysphasic Speech We are currently working on a grant entitled "Syntactic Theory and the Characterization of Dysphasic Speech" for which we are producing an annotated corpus of cross-linguistic agrammatic aphasic data, drawn in the most part from the recent comprehensive three-volume work edited by Menn and Obler. The corpus is primarily intended for the attention of theoretical syntacticians who are interested in patterns of pathology as a means of informing their own understanding of syntax. It is organized by syntactic construction and has detailed discussion of the data in terms of current syntactic theory, in particular the assumption of a universal syntactic substrate UG. We would be interested to know of any other groups or individuals studying either the same or similar crosslinguistic data, particularly in terms of syntax, or of any other corpora which extend the range of languages contained in the Menn and Obler corpus (English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Icelandic, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, French, Italian, Finnish, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese). We will post back to LINGUIST a compilation of the replies which we receive and we will announce when the corpus which we are assembling is available. Thanks in anticipation. Mary Tait and Richard Shillcock Linguistics Dept./Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9LW UK mtait@ling.ed.ac.uk rcs@cogsci.ed.ac.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 16:37:04 BST From: Martin Wynne Subject: Computational analysis of indirect discourse Has anyone done or does anyone know of computational analysis done on indirect discourse (e.g. identifying formal features of reported speech, identifying narrative voices, etc.). References to any formal work in this area would be useful. Martin Wynne Dept. Linguistics & Phonetics University of Leeds -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-739. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243442, 112 lines Posted: 10:40pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 9:37pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.740 Non-Sexist language To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-740. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 111 Subject: 3.740 Non-Sexist language Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 12:24:25 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: 3.734 Non-sexist Language 2) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 12:07:28 PDT From: rubba@bend.UCSD.EDU (Johanna Rubba) Subject: dog -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 12:24:25 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: 3.734 Non-sexist Language >From: GIVEN@sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu >Subject: 3.724 *dog* as non-sexist language > The ad in question read > If your date is a dog, get a vet. > Am I missing something? One seeks for many qualities in a date. Physical >attractiveness is frequently one of them. But only one of them. One important >trait that I seek in >a date is quality of character. Many other people would agree. When they read >the billboard, they might be more likely to conclude that the *dog*, i.e., >person of low character, was a male. Right?... wrong, as i see it. sure, _dog_ can refer to a male low-life, but i know of NO stereotype that says females will attract males of high moral character if they have a fancy sportscar. in contrast, there is a very well-entrenched stereotype that males will attract good-looking females if they have a fancy sportscar. thus which sense of this polysemous item is selected is not random-- context counts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 12:07:28 PDT From: rubba@bend.UCSD.EDU (Johanna Rubba) Subject: dog In response to JA Given's comment on the 'dog' car ad: As I recall, the 'research' done by the person who originally saw the billboard was qualified as informal, and I for one feel reasonably sure that it was carried out in a way to screen out experimenter bias. _Of course_ formal sociolinguistic experimental methods are designed to screen out such bias. And yes, if the majority of the respondents had identified the 'dog' as male, it would be a sexist ad. Sexism is not only directed towards women. Even those of us with a committed feminist agenda recognize that men suffer from gender stereotyping and gender bias as well as women. And we object to such sexism! Finally, I have no doubt that some people might interpret 'dog' as a male in this ad, including younger people, who seem to be able to use the term for either sex. But, let's be realistic. Automobile advertising (especially for sporty cars like the 'vette) is still largely directed towards men (not too long ago I read a piece in the LA Times about how car manufacturers are searching for ways to market cars to women, and seem pretty low on ideas on how to do it). There is also a long tradition of using women to sell cars to men (bombshells in bikinis draped across car hoods, etc.). Cars are also an important status symbol used by men to attract women, and ads incorporate this. Given this cultural context, and the common (and for some speakers most typical) metaphorical reading of 'unattractive woman' for 'dog', it seems obvious to me that a good working hypothesis is that that is the reading that the advertiser intended, and that it is a sexist ad. The interpretation I would draw from seeing this billboard is that you can only date unattractive women unless you have a fancy car to impress women with. Therefore if you are stuck dating 'dogs' one way to remedy the situation is to buy a Corvette, and soon find yourself surrounded by swarms of beauties. A working hypothesis is often the basis of linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic experiments. The well trained researcher, whatever her political agenda, will conduct the experiment in an unbiased manner, and accept whatever results the data give, whether they agree with her agenda or not. But let's suppose the advertiser is savvy on the meaning of slang for more than one generation, and intended to influence women into buying a Corvette for the same reasons as men, i.e. on the reading of 'dog' as an unattractive male. The ad is still pretty objectionable, to my mind, perpetuating the unrealistic ideals of physical attractiveness and overall perfection that are constantly foisted by the advertising media on the public, and which contribute to the low self-esteem of millions of normal-looking girls and boys in our society. Given's proposal bends over backwards to let the advertiser off the hook of the accusation of sexism against women, or the accusation of exploitation of unrealistic social ideals. In view of the cultural context outlined above, I find it pretty implausible. Jo Rubba UC San Diego -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-740. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243036, 299 lines Posted: 10:43pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 9:14pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.741 The Barber Paradox: Sign and Referent To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-741. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 298 Subject: 3.741 The Barber Paradox: Sign and Referent Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 12:05:09 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: the Barber Paradox as confusion between sign and referent -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 12:05:09 EST From: j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) Subject: the Barber Paradox as confusion between sign and referent The subject line gives away my ulterior motive in the original posting. But first, I was astonished at getting 11 personal e-mail messages about my Barber story, before I received the issue of Linguist that contained it. I did intend to start something, but did not expect that much of a reaction. The count now stands at 15, plus those who wrote their thoughts to Linguist. Second, I had been zealously searching for the book where I read the Spanish Barber paradox. I needed the precise wording of the paradox, for if a linguistic illusion there was, it must have depended on the wording. In vain. I thought I had it when, in the index of Lewis Carroll's "Symbolic Logic" I saw "Barber-Shop Paradox". But it wasn't. Eventually, that is, yesterday (28/9) I found it mentioned in a slim Penguin book, "Vicious Circles and Infinity", by Patrick Hughes and George Brecht, but the discussion I remembered was missing. I suspect it might have been in a book by Bertrand Russell, the title of which I cannot remember, where he told the story of Hegel publishing a proof that there could be only seven planets shortly before Uranus was discovered, and how poor Hegel scoured the bookshops, frantically buying back copies of his monograph [Note 1]. The Spanish Barber paradox, some correspondents pointed out (that refreshed my memory), was meant to do with the "catalog of catalogs that do not list themselves." Try to write a catalog of the catalogs that do not list themselves and, just before you go to the printer with your manuscript in your hot little hand, ask yourselves "Ah, but should I have listed my catalog itself in there?". A clearly stated paradox. "Vicious Circles and Infinity" mentions, p.12, how Russell proposed to dispose of the contradiction: "it seemed to me that a class sometimes is, and sometimes is not, a member of itself. The class of teaspoons, for example, is not another teaspoon, but the class of thing that are not teaspoons, is one of the things that are not teaspoons." I certainly did not see what the Spanish Barber had to do with classes and sets when I first read it. Consider the wording of the paradox as taken from "Vicious Circles", which is probably what Bertrand Russell wrote verbatim: A man of Seville is shaved by the Barber of Seville if and only if the man does not shave himself? Does the Barber of Seville shave himself? Allow me to rephrase it, less sloppily ("a man of Seville" does not mean "every man of Seville"; the Barber of Seville need not be a man of Seville, he could be of Malaga; "if and only if" does not clearly convey that he must be clean-shaven) Every man in Seville will be shaved today by one certain man in Seville unless he shaves himself. Will that certain man in Seville shave himself today? Does that sentence express anything other than the original? I think not. But that certain man will shave himself today and all the others who don't and the paradox has vanished. Where did it go? Where was it hiding in the first place? Let me turn Seville into an Indian village (the caste system will help). We have a caste of men, the Gillettes, who shave themselves. Another, the Schicks, think it below their dignity, and have themselves shaved by a third caste, obviously the dregs of the dregs, called... the Barbers. The Gillettes are not allowed, of course, to get shaved, a privilege reserved for the superior Schicks. What of the Barbers? This scum of the earth is not allowed to have itself shaved by other Barbers (Now who do you think you are, Barber? One of us Schicks? Off with your head!) They are not allowed to shave themselves either, that is the Gillettes' prerogative. Those rules take care of the "if and only if" bits in the Spanish Barber paradox (or exclusive or's, if you prefer to word it so). In good logic you would conclude that those Barbers all wear long beards or, as a few have jocularly said, must be women. But the Spanish Barber's paradox, because it claims to be a paradox, whatever its exact wording, rules that out: male and clean-shaven they must be, and using tweezers, smouldering walnut shells, and other untonsorial artifices on themselves is out too. An impossible state of affairs. Now what is this? It is me asking you to solve these equations: y = 2x x = y-1 and, just as you are about to say "ha, ha! x= 1 and y = 2", adding: no, because you should also satisfy this condition that x = y. That is precisely, I think, what Stavros Macrakis writes in Linguist: "the original definition is flawed". There is no paradox, no mystery, just an error. What is it, then, that endowed it with such mystery? The first time I read the Barber paradox, I remember saying to myself immediately "this is stupid, it would have me believe that the barber is not himself". How does that lead to the catalog of catalogs that do not list themselves? Turn "Indian village" into "library", "shave" into "refer to", "man" into "book", "caste" into "floor". On the "Gillette" floor are stored books that refer to themselves and no other; on the "Schick" floor books that refer to none, but are referred to by others; on the "Barber" floor books that refer to those on the "Schick" floor. So there is the analogy: one day the librarian writes a book that refers to all the books on the Barber floor so that none be unreferenced; one day the rajah appoints a man to shave all the barbers so that none be hirsute. The next question is: has such a book its place on any of the existing floors, has such a barber a status in any of the existing castes? A bit of reflection shows that no, the rules have to be changed. The barber of barbers must belong to a new caste, the catalog of catalogs that do not list themselves hide on a different floor. A boxful of Bertrand Russell teaspoons is not a teaspoon. My initial question still remains unaswered: what made it so difficult to recognize? Bacchus inspiring, think of a wine bottle that would contain the labels of all the wine bottles that do not contain their own label. Let us look at one of those bottles. It is a wine bottle, with wine labels stuffed into it. Is its own label inside? But wait, what do we mean by "own label"? The labels inside symbolize wines, the label on this bottle itself symbolizes a bottleful of labels. To equate the label on the bottle with any label inside it we must ignore what those labels refer to and treat them as nothing but pieces of paper with doodles on them. That is why I mentioned a linguistic illusion: a paradox arises only if we take sign and referent (signifiant and signifie') to be one and the same. Your photograph becomes you and if I tear it up you die. But in so doing we have destroyed the very notion and mechanism of reference. We should not be allowed to lay claim to logical thinking any more, only magical. Am I setting up a straw man for my foul purposes? Consider chapter 16 of Hofstadter's "Goedel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Raid". Hofstadter opens with five sentences to introduce us to the intricacies of self-referencing: (1) This sentence contains five words. (2) This sentence is meaningless because it is self-referential. (3) This sentence no verb. (4) This sentence is false. (5) The sentence I am now writing is the sentence you are now reading. He discusses only sentence (4), of which he writes: The difficulty is perhaps underlined when a sentence such as number 4 is presented to someone naive about paradoxes, and linguistic tricks, such as a child. They may say, "What sentence is false?" and it may take a bit of persistence to get across the idea that the sentence is talking about itself. "This sentence is false (true)" is equivalent to "It is false (true) that " with the noun phrase "this sentence" referring to . But, as someone naive about paradoxes and linguistic tricks would rightly remark, "What statement?". There is no statement there. Even granting that "the sentence is talking about itself", all it says is "It is false that it is false that is false that..." about, ultimately, nothing. Take sentence (3) now: This sentence no verb. "This sentence no verb" is not a sentence, but what is left after you have removed the verb from a sentence. What happens? As often when confronted with a misspelt word we try to figure out what it was meant to be and here, we easily reconstruct: "This sentence has no verb", referring to, and separate from, the ill-formed utterance "This sentence no verb". No self-referencing there. The mechanism by which we interpret that particular utterance, and are conned into agreeing with it, is nowhere discussed. It reminds me very much of the forced-card trick of conjurers. We are made to pick a word, "has" or "contains", putting it back into the deck, and voila! "This sentence has no verb". Ah, but what if you had been aware of the trick and picked the wrong word on purpose: "This sentence lacks no verb"? Now take sentence (1): This sentence contains five words. That sentence does indeed consist of five words, and this should give us an inkling of the sleight of hand that is being performed. What has been happening? We are being led into accepting as "sentence" a string of words separated by spaces and terminated by a period. For instance: This sentence no verb. At the same time we are made to reflect on the form of some strings of words and on their meanings, or what their meanings would be when, by pruning here and grafting there, they have been made into well-formed sentences. Form and content, sign and referent, signifiant and signifie' have been inextricably confused. All along, our attention is kept away from the fact that there are two sides to any utterance, its form and its content and we are made to marvel at how sometimes form matches content and sometimes not. Likewise a conjurer performs his tricks by distracting his audience, but he does so consciously and does not himself believe that he has proven the spontaneous generation of rabbits out of top hats. That error does not seem to be Hofstadter's alone. "Vicious Circles" also opens with self-reference: There are many propositions with are self-referential. For instance: This sentence has five words. This is a sentence. This sentence is written in the English language. (Vicious Circles and Infinity, p.1) Those propositions, however, refer to their printed expression in the English language. If you say that they refer to themselves, you imply that they are nothing but their printed form. [Note 2] And now back to the Spanish Barber, driven to the bottle. To turn the Spanish Barber into a paradoxical catalog of catalogs we need only imagine that he keeps a list of his customers, a collection of visiting cards in a bottle for example [Note 3]. Next we stick his own visiting card on the bottle and ask "Does the bottle contain that card?". Only then does the problem become that of the catalog of catalogs that do not list themselves [Note 4] and a paradox is allowed to arise as long as we insist on confusing sign and referent. ------------------------- [Footnote 1] Hegel was born in 1770, Uranus discovered in 1781. Was Bertrand Russell taking the mickey out of his readers, or is my memory playing tricks? [Footnote 2] "Vicious Circles" is replete with what I see as nothing but hocus pocus and obfuscation of the same ilk. For instance: Valdis Augstkalns has proposed an absolute refutation of Jourdain's paradox. He suggests 'a strip of paper with "The statement on the other side of this paper is true" written on one side of it, and "The statement on the other side if this paper is false" written on the other side of it... One takes the paper, gives it a half twist, and joins the ends to form a Moebius strip. The serious and philosophically legitimate question is transformed to 'Eminent members of the panel, which is the other side of the paper?' To dare call the question "serious and philosophically legitimate" makes my blood boils. There is nothing to refute for there is nothing there, but a mindless "It is true that it is false that it is true that it is false that..." ad infinitum, without a proposition ever concluding this parrot's babble. I was quite surprised to find that book on my shelves: I was persuaded that I had thrown it out in disgust. [Footnote 3] He could keep them in his wallet, or their names in his memory; he could dye their beards purple instead of shaving them, we would still be back to the non-paradox of the bottle of labels. [Footnote 4] How misleading the very wording is! A catalog does not list itself, other catalogs, garden tools, nor thingagummy widgets, it lists names of catalogs, garden tools, or thingagummy widgets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-741. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243489, 133 lines Posted: 10:47pm EDT, Fri Oct 2/92, imported: 9:40pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.742 Jobs: Hungary, Japanese, Open Specialization To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-742. Fri 02 Oct 1992. Lines: 132 Subject: 3.742 Jobs: Hungary, Japanese, Open Specialization Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 20:01:14 CDT From: Gregory K. Iverson Subject: Job in Hungary 2) Date: 02 Oct 1992 15:14:59 -0400 (EDT) From: AUSTIN@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: Japanese Linguistics 3) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 20:51:08 CDT From: battiste@cis.uab.edu (Ed Battistella) Subject: Linguistics: Specialization open -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 20:01:14 CDT From: Gregory K. Iverson Subject: Job in Hungary Edith Moravcsik has asked me to post the following job announcement to LINGUIST (non-ASCII vowel diacritics on the Hungarian names are missing). -- Greg iverson@convex.csd.uwm.edu - Vacancy for Chairperson in an English Department in Hungary. The Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Pecs, Hungary, is looking for an English philologist, literary critic, and/or English linguist to head the program. The position involves transforming a department which has traditionally had a primary interest in teacher training into a full-fledged university-level English department. Knowledge of Hungarian is welcome but not necessary. Salary will be paid in Hungarian currency but matching in amount Western European and US standards. A two-to- three-year initial commitment is requested. Pecs (about 250,000 inhabitants) is a historic town among the hills of South Hungary, about 2.5 hours from Budapest by train. Interested candidates should send letter and CV to the following address by the end of October or as shortly thereafter as possible: Ozseb Horanyi, Dean of Humanities Janus Pannonius University Ifjusag utja 6. H-7624 Pecs Hungary -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: 02 Oct 1992 15:14:59 -0400 (EDT) From: AUSTIN@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: Japanese Linguistics NEW YORK UNIVERSITY The Foreign Language Education Program seeks to find qualified candidate for an adjunct position in Japanese linguistics. Conditions: Non-tenured position, two graduate courses per semester on two of the following: structure of Japanese,phonetics and phonology, and discourse analysis. Salary based on experience and qualifications. Start date: Spring 93 1/19/93 Minimum Requirements: MA in linguistics (with a major in Japanese) ability to work with diverse student populations (native & non-native speakers), ability to communicate subject matter effectively to future teachers To Apply: Send a letter indicating your qualifications, resume, official transcripts, and two letters of recommendation by NOV 1, 1992 Contact Dr. Theresa Austin, Director Foreign Language Education Program Department of Teaching & Learning 239 Greene Street, 635 EAST BLDG. New York, NY. 10012-1632 Tel.: (212) 998-5469 Internet/Bitnet: AUSTIN@ACF.NYU.EDU New York University is located in the heart of Manhattan in Greenwich Village. The Foreign Language Education Program in Department of Teaching & Learning prepares future teachers of French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 20:51:08 CDT From: battiste@cis.uab.edu (Ed Battistella) Subject: Linguistics: Specialization open Tenure-track assistant professor position in linguistics, beginning fall 1993. PhD preferred. Specialization open. Duties include teaching undergraduate and MA-level courses in general linguistics. Screening begins Nov. 21, 1992 and will remain open until a selection is made. Send a letter of application, vita, and the names of three referencs to Dr. John J. Haggerty, Chair, English Department, University of Alabama at Birmingham, UAB Station, Birmingham, AL 35294. UAB is an EO/AA employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-742. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16242848, 103 lines Posted: 10:05am EDT, Sat Oct 3/92, imported: 9:02pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.743 Queries: Translation software; addresses; German To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-743. Sat 03 Oct 1992. Lines: 102 Subject: 3.743 Queries: Translation software; addresses; German Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 14:07:58 MET From: "Ederveen D." Subject: Software for helping translators 2) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 10:26:39 BST From: Mary Tait Subject: E-Mail Addresses 3) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 20:51:06 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: German diminutive phonology -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 14:07:58 MET From: "Ederveen D." Subject: Software for helping translators Hello, I would like to compile a list of software that would be useful for translators, especially concerning English, French and Dutch. Of course information for any language is welcomed. I'm thinking of the following categories: - electronic dictionaries - software for managing word-lists for specialised fields - electronic thesauri - (half-)automatic translation software - OCR software - spelling corrections - comparing two versions of a document - annotating software Please e-mail to me directly if you know about such software, or any software that translators might find useful. I'll summarize to the list. It would be most convenient to use the 'form' below. category: name: purpose: platform: system requirements: short description: price indication: address: comments: -- Derk Ederveen tel. +31-70-3323202 D.N.M.Ederveen@research.ptt.nl / ederveen@hlsdnl5.bitnet fax. +31-70-3326477 ** "I wish I was a warrior, in every language that I speak" - Lou Reed ** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 10:26:39 BST From: Mary Tait Subject: E-Mail Addresses Does anyone know of an email address for Michael Fortescue? Does anyone know of an email, or a snail mail, address for Knut Bergsland? Thanks, Mary Tait -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 20:51:06 EDT From: Alexis_Manaster_Ramer@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Query: German diminutive phonology I am writing a note on the current debate concerning the German diminutive suffix -chen, and I thought I would ask for any judgements from those fluent in German whether words like riechen or Griechen rhyme with diminutive forms like Viehchen or Briechen. They don't seem to rhyme for me, but then I am FAAAAAAAAAAAAAR from fluent in German. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-743. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243174, 79 lines Posted: 10:07am EDT, Sat Oct 3/92, imported: 9:23pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.744 Queries: Natural language and databases; ASCII IPA To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-744. Sat 03 Oct 1992. Lines: 78 Subject: 3.744 Queries: Natural language and databases; ASCII IPA Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 14:06:19 EDT From: cmac@ssdc.sterling.com (Chris McNeilly) Subject: Natural Language to SQL 2) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 17:42:30 EDT From: rws@mbeya.research.att.com (Richard Sproat) Subject: Request for Info on Ascii IPA -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 14:06:19 EDT From: cmac@ssdc.sterling.com (Chris McNeilly) Subject: Natural Language to SQL I'm in search of commercial systems that are natural language front ends for relational databases. The user enters english queries and the system kicks out sql. Does anybody have any experience with any of these systems and can recommend one? Currently I'm using a system from Natural Language and it seems to have problems dealing with some of the things we need to do. Thanks, Chris ---------------------------------- Chris McNeilly Sterling Software Work 703-356-3551 FAX 703-821-1485 email cmac%ssdc@uunet.uu.net uunet!ssdc!cmac -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 17:42:30 EDT From: rws@mbeya.research.att.com (Richard Sproat) Subject: Request for Info on Ascii IPA We have need of a two-byte ascii representation for the IPA. The system should be reasonably complete in that it can cover at least the phonemes (and their allophones) for the more commonly spoken languages. In addition, it would be ideal if it were fairly widely used (we don't want to use an idiosyncratic set of symbols, if at all possible). If you know where I can find such a set, please send mail to me directly. Thanks. Richard Sproat Linguistics Research Department AT&T Bell Laboratories | tel (908) 582-5296 600 Mountain Avenue, Room 2d-451 | fax (908) 582-7308 Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA | rws@research.att.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-744. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243186, 45 lines Posted: 10:10am EDT, Sat Oct 3/92, imported: 9:23pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.745 David Abercrombie To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-745. Sat 03 Oct 1992. Lines: 44 Subject: 3.745 David Abercrombie Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 01 Oct 1992 07:36:11 -0300 From: WTGORDON@AC.DAL.CA Subject: Re: 3.710 Obituary: David Abercrombie -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 01 Oct 1992 07:36:11 -0300 From: WTGORDON@AC.DAL.CA Subject: Re: 3.710 Obituary: David Abercrombie The notice of David Abercrombie's death very rightly emphasized both the excellence of his scholarship and his boundless humanitarian generosity. Even in the weakened condition of his last years he projected compassionate warmth and bristling intellectual curiosity together. For all his preeminence as a phonetician, no area of language or linguistics was outside the scope of his interest. He was a close personal friend of C. K. Ogden and taught Ogden's Basic English in Greece and Egypt under the auspices of the British Council before the outbreak of WWII. It is a story in itself. In Athens, the Basic English classes were so popular that crowds in the streets, trying to get into overenrolled classes, drew the attention of the police, who eventually turned hundreds away. The Basic English success story continued in Alexandria, where the Abercrombie team of teachers included the young Lawrence Durrell. The forthcoming Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics from Pergamon will include a number of entries prepared by David. Typically, he was passionately engaged in this and much other work till his last days. He was a model for all of us. Terry Gordon (WTGORDON@AC.DAL.CA) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-745. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243570, 114 lines Posted: 10:13am EDT, Sat Oct 3/92, imported: 9:45pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.746 Japanese Pronouns To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-746. Sat 03 Oct 1992. Lines: 113 Subject: 3.746 Japanese Pronouns Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 30 Sep 1992 08:09:45 -0700 (MST) From: Kim Jones Subject: Japanese pronoun "boku" 2) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 16:08:17 BST From: John Lee Subject: Re: 3.734 Baby-talk 3) Date: 30 Sep 1992 21:06:38 -0700 (MST) From: Kim Jones Subject: Japanese pronoun "boku" 4) Date: 30 Sep 1992 12:04:12 -0400 (EDT) From: This space for rent Subject: Re: 3.734 Baby-talk, Non-sexist Language -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 30 Sep 1992 08:09:45 -0700 (MST) From: Kim Jones Subject: Japanese pronoun "boku" The Japanese 1st person plural pronoun "boku" can be used by males of any age, given an appropriate casual situation. Some young women also use it, especially in all-female group. Used by women, it may have a casual joking feel, or it may, as Allan Wechsler points out, be used to make a political statement. In my experience, little girls are not very likely to use boku, though I haven't known that many young children in Japan, so I could be wrong about this. I did have one friend whose 3-year old daughter, who played mainly with a little boy of the same age, used to get a kick out of annoying her father by calling herself "boku." He tried to squelch this by telling her it was only little boys who used boku. My feeling about what is going on when adults use boku to address or refer to young boys (it isn't used of little girls) is that it is not really a pronoun any more. It simply means "little boy" and as such can be used as a term of address when speaking to a little boy or as a term of reference when speaking about a little boy. There are other examples of this type of use of "pronouns." "Kare," a 3rd person singular masculine pronoun, and "kanozyo," 3sg feminine, are often used to mean "boyfriend" and "girlfriend," respectively. "Hanako-san no kare" (Hanako's "he") means "Hanako's boyfriend." Overall, the use of what we think of as pronouns in Japanese is very different from that seen in English and other European langauges. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Lee Subject: Re: 3.734 Baby-talk 2) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 16:08:17 BST > > On another subject, how widespread is the English baby-talk in which the > baby is addressed with a special 2sg pronoun "ums", with 3sg agreement? > I've only seen it written. "Does ums want aunty to carry ums?" If > anybody knows a native speaker of this atrocity, I'm interested. > Not sure about this; but perhaps relevantly to the original point, one does sometimes get, in talking to children and perhaps other contexts, expressions like: Do we want aunty to carry us? (using 1pl with 2sg effect). Intonation would be important as well. John Lee. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: 30 Sep 1992 21:06:38 -0700 (MST) From: Kim Jones Subject: Japanese pronoun "boku" A short update/correction to my earlier message: a colleague who spent many years in Kyoto tells me that she knew several little girls who used boku in self-reference. She also says that she can think of at least one mother who used boku to address her daughter. She thinks it is possible that such use was in response to the daughter first referring to herself as boku--that she can't think of any case where a mother initiated the usage with a daughter. Can anyone add any information from their own experiences? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Date: 30 Sep 1992 12:04:12 -0400 (EDT) From: This space for rent Subject: Re: 3.734 Baby-talk, Non-sexist Language With regard to the use of "boku", I believe that it is generally accepted that most if not all Japanese pronouns are actually names (which is why, for example, there can be so *many* words for "I" and "you". "Boku" is used with boys (not girls, but there are recent changes in teenage girls' usage) as the *name* for the child. The confusion arises when "Boku" sees other boys and adult males calling *themselves* "boku". Sorry for the lack of a parenthesis above. Susan Fischer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-746. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16243890, 79 lines Posted: 10:16am EDT, Sat Oct 3/92, imported: 10:08pm EDT, Sun Oct 4/92 Subject: 3.747 Phoneticians; New Chomsky Movie To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-747. Sat 03 Oct 1992. Lines: 78 Subject: 3.747 Phoneticians; New Chomsky Movie Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 11:23 GMT From: Richard Ogden Subject: Phoneticians' errors 2) Date: Sat, 3 Oct 92 9:39:34 EDT From: Randy Allen Harris Subject: fyi: New Chomsky movie -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 11:23 GMT From: Richard Ogden Subject: Phoneticians' errors Alexis Manaster-Ramer writes: > There are many examples, I believe, where what even the best > "ear" phoneticians systematically mishear what is actually > uttered. If a phonetician mishears things systematically I think it is reasonable to conclude that that phonetician is not one of the best ones. --- How do you know when something is 'misheard'? instrumental data (like EPG tracings and spectrograms) often conflict with each other. The well-trained ear is often the most relevant tool. --- Who decides who is a 'good' phonetician? (Good does not mean famous.) As far as I am aware IPA membership does not depend on a test of whether you can produce and recognise the sounds on the IPA chart. Maybe it should! :-) > An example might be the fricative pronunciations > of English /k/ and /g/ in intervocalic position. Phoneticians are meant to listen without prejudice. A phonetician who heard [x] as [k] because '/k/' (whatever that is) was expected would be making a serious error: confusing the phonetic with the phonological. The dichotomy between 'ear' and 'instrument' phoneticians is unhealthy; the one should inform the other. Richard Ogden Experimental Phonetics Laboratory University of York England -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sat, 3 Oct 92 9:39:34 EDT From: Randy Allen Harris Subject: fyi: New Chomsky movie (I know this is a linguistic list, and I'll let the moderators decide whether or not to pass this note on, but ...) There is a new movie, a documentary which premiered at Toronto's movie festival this year, that might be of interest: _Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media_. The line-ups were long, and the only review I've seen ("The Scholar from another Planet", in the 2 October issue of Canada's national paper, _The Globe and Mail_) is pretty favorable. I haven't seen it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-747. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16261579, 70 lines Posted: 10:05am EDT, Mon Oct 5/92, imported: 1:14pm EDT, Mon Oct 5/92 Subject: 3.748 Queries: Sentani; the acquisition of nested dependencies To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-748. Mon 05 Oct 1992. Lines: 69 Subject: 3.748 Queries: Sentani; the acquisition of nested dependencies Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu REMINDER [We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.] -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 05 Oct 1992 12:56:57 +0000 (GMT) From: Rene.Kager@let.ruu.nl Subject: Sentani 2) Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 23:54:50 EDT From: Ron Smyth Subject: nested dependencies -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 05 Oct 1992 12:56:57 +0000 (GMT) From: Rene.Kager@let.ruu.nl Subject: Sentani Can anyone help us with information on the Sentani language (spoken in Irian Jaya, New Guinea)? We would be most interested in references on Sentani phonology, especially prosody. However any information on grammars, dictionaries, word lists, and other material (taped, transcribed, etc.) would be welcome. References on Sentani collected so far include: Cowan, H.J.K. (1965). A Grammar of the Sentani Language. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Papers by H.J.K. Cowan in Oceania 21-22 (1951-1952) and Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde 108:347-364 (1952). Hartzler, Dwight (1976). "A study of Sentani verb structure", Irian 5.2, 18-38. Hartzler, Margaret (1976), "Central Sentani phonology", Irian 5.1, 66-81. Rene Kager, Nine Elenbaas, Wim Zonneveld Onderzoeksinstituut voor Taal en Spraak Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht The Netherlands kager@hutruu59.bitnet -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 23:54:50 EDT From: Ron Smyth Subject: nested dependencies Can anyone point me to work on the acquisition of crossed and nested dependencies? I will summarize results to the list. Ron Smyth smyth@lake.scar.utoronto.ca -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-748. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16261297, 44 lines Posted: 10:08am EDT, Mon Oct 5/92, imported: 1:08pm EDT, Mon Oct 5/92 Subject: 3.749 Job: Syntax at Potsdam To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-749. Mon 05 Oct 1992. Lines: 43 Subject: 3.749 Job: Syntax at Postdam Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 14:01:28 +0100 From: fanselow@pille.phil.uni-passau.de (Gisbert Fanselow) Subject: Jobs in Potsdam -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 14:01:28 +0100 From: fanselow@pille.phil.uni-passau.de (Gisbert Fanselow) Subject: Jobs in Potsdam This is to inform that in the course of setting up a linguistics program, the University of Potsdam, Germany (vicinity of Berlin) invites applications for the following tenured positions, which complement a full professorship in syntax psycholinguistics (language aquisition), full (C4) professorship computational linguistics, full (C4) professorship comparative grammar, full (C4) professorship Applications should be sent to Gruendungsrektor der Universitaet Potsdam Prof. Dr. R. Mitzner Am Neuen Palais 10 D - O - 1571 Potsdam Germany Deadline: October 23rd, 1992 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-749. ________________________________________________________________ Message: 16323632, 184 lines Posted: 8:31am EDT, Wed Oct 7/92, imported: 9:08am EDT, Wed Oct 7/92 Subject: 3.750 The Barber Paradox To: linguistics-l, LINGUIST@TAMVM1 From: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu Sender: LINGUIST%TAMVM1.BITNET@tamvm1.tamu.edu ReplyTo: linguist%tamsun.tamu.edu@tamvm1.tamu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-750. Wed 07 Oct 1992. Lines: 181 Subject: 3.750 The Barber Paradox Moderators: Anthony Aristar: Texas A&M University Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan University Assistant Editor: Brian Wallace: bwallace@emunix.emich.edu -------------------------Directory------------------------------------- 1) Date: 05 Oct 1992 11:28:36 -0700 (MST) From: OEHRLE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Barber Paradox 2) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 92 14:40 +8 From: Tom Lai Subject: Barber's Paradox 3) Date: Tue, 06 Oct 92 10:23:46 +0100 Subject: Re: 3.741 The Barber Paradox: Sign and Referent From: Stephen P Spackman -------------------------Messages-------------------------------------- 1) Date: 05 Oct 1992 11:28:36 -0700 (MST) From: OEHRLE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Barber Paradox There has been some discussion on the list recently of the sources of the `Barber Paradox'. This is discussed by Quine, who writes (in `The Ways of Paradox' [first published as `Paradox' in _Scientific American_ (Volume 206, 1962)], _The Ways of Paradox and other essays_, Random House, New York, 1966, page 4): As a first step onto this dangerous ground, let us consider another paradox: that of the village barber. This is not Russell's great paradox of 1901, to which we will come, but a lesser one that Russell attributed to an unnamed source in 1918. In a certain village there is a man, so the paradox runs, who is a barber; this barber shaves all and only those men in the village who do not shave themselves. Query: Does the barber shave himself? Russell's original discussion can be found in `The Philosophy of Logical Atomism' (originally presented as a lecture series in London in early 1918, then published in _The Monist_ (volumes 28 and 29) in 1918 and 1919, and reprinted in _Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950_, edited by Robert C. Marsh, Capricorn Books, New York, 1956). On page 261 of the Marsh collection, speaking of `the contradiction about classes that are not members of themselves', Russell writes: That contradiction is extremely interesting. You can modify its form; some forms of modification are valid and some are not. I once had a form suggested to me which was not valid, namely the question whether the barber shaves himself or not. You can define the barber as `one who shaves all those, and those only, who do not shave themselves'. The question is, does the barber shave himself? In this form the contradiction is not very difficult to solve.... One can find more extensive discussions of paradoxes of mathematical and philosophical logic in Russell's 1908 paper `Mathematical logic as based on the theory of types' (reprinted in the Marsh collection and in J. van Heijenoort, ed., _From Frege to G\"{o}del: A Sourcebook in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931_, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1971), in S.C. Kleene, _Introduction to Metamathematics_), and in recent writings of Raymond Smullyan, such as ... what was the name of that book? Wishing I could find a closing salutation, Dick Oehrle -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 92 14:40 +8 From: Tom Lai Subject: Barber's Paradox Excuse me for giving the following largely non-linguistic account of the paradox of the barber of Seville. This paradox as studied in Mathematics is a result of an inherent problem with defining a set as {x|x possesses certain properties} where x is an individual in the universe of entities under study (and "|" means "such that"). This way of defining a set gets into trouble when we define the set S as S = {x|x is not a member of x} i.e. S is the set of sets that are not members of themselves (please interpret this comment in conjunction with the notational definition given above). The paradox is that S can neither be a member of itself nor not be a member of itself. More specifically, x is in S <=> x is not in x ("<=>" is just "if and only if") Subsituting S for x (to find out whether S itself is in S), we have S is in S <=> S is not in S (#) Coming back to the Spanish barber, the set of (all) inhabitants of the town who are shaved by the barber is Q = {y | y does not shave y} Thus, if the barber is b, b shaves y <=> y does not shave y To find out whether b is in Q or not, we substitute b for y and get b shaves b <=> b does not shave b (##) (##) is the same kind of paradox as (#). _SO_, there is a real paradox here. How to give an accurate verbal (linguistic) account of the barber's version of this paradox may not be trivial. But whether an attempt to do so is successful or not, the paradox is there for its own sake. Tom Lai, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong (Sorry for this _long_ posting) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Date: Tue, 06 Oct 92 10:23:46 +0100 Subject: Re: 3.741 The Barber Paradox: Sign and Referent From: Stephen P Spackman In article 3.741.1 of this list, "the Barber Paradox as confusion between sign and referent", j.guy@trl.oz.au (Jacques Guy) would have us believe that because the Barber Paradox and its relatives force us to the conclusion that there is an additional category of things in the universe than those allowed by the original phrasing of the problem, it is therefore not a paradox but a linguistic sleight of hand. Perhaps he fails to grasp that this is precisely the nature of paradox and that this conclusion is the one to which the mathematical philosophers (and, indeed, Doug Hofstadter) would have us lead? The precise (classical) "fix" to the problem of the set of all sets that do not contain themselves is a heirarchy of set-LIKE entities arranged so that the paradoxical self-embedding objects do not exist - the addition, that is, of NEW categories not stated in the problem. It is one of the most important tools of (classical) mathematics to set up a system that is "paradoxical" - inconsistent - in order to demonstrate that a set of premisses cannot ALL be true. It is perhaps unfortunate that this methodology does not reliably discriminate between methodological errors, false premisses, and equiplausible but mutually inconsistent hypotheses (and this may be the psychology underlying the rejection of this methodology by some mathematicians), but that doesn't make it either a "sleight" or particularly "linguistic". Of course, one might adopt the stance of an ultra-Whorfian and suppose that the structure of arithmetic is in fact determined by some coincidental feature of the languages of all cultures that have explored number theory - but there are enough of these and sufficiently varied that this feature would seem to have the status of an "accidental universal" - it would require (in light of the evidence) something of an intellectual leap to suppose that there are languages with the property that their speakers are LOGICALLY INCAPABLE of verifying the proofs of the various "anti-recursion" theorems. (Actually, of course, what is going on is that the human mind is finite and we can only do APPROXIMATIONS of mathematics. Those who hold to the doctrine of infinite language are forced to postulate that we can equally aspire only to approximations of language. Small wonder we get confused occasionally.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- stephen p spackman stephen@acm.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-750.